China has achieved a major milestone in self-building capacity on all types of deepwater oil and gas equipment as it set the seal on the secondary development project on Tuesday.
China's largest offshore oil producer China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on Tuesday announced that the Liuhua Oilfield secondary development project, the first in China, has completed all offshore debugging process and entered the final stage of preparation before production, as Asia's first cylindrical oil-gas facility Haikui No. 1 and the record-breaking deepwater jacket structure Haiji-2 passing the mechanical acceptance.
China's pioneering cylindrical floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, Haikui No.1, marks a breakthrough in the nation's deep-water, ultra-large offshore oil and gas equipment development.
The home-grown Haiji-2 jacket have set Asian records for structure height, weight, operational depth and construction speed.
Located 240 kilometers southeast of Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, Liuhua Oilfield is China's first deepwater oilfield, with an operating water depth of 324 meters and proven geological reserves of more than 100 million tonnes.
It is the first time in China that the project adopted the "deepwater jacket platform plus cylinder FPSO" development mode. In this mode, the deepwater jacket drilling platform will extract crude oil, which will be then sent to the cylinder FPSO facility after pretreatment and processed into qualified crude oil for storage and transportation.
"The innovative structural design of Haiji-2 and Haikui No. 1 has broken the previous monopoly of foreign companies and developed several pioneering technologies, including those on S420 ultra-high strength steel welding, cylindrical FPSO hull design and large-scale marine jacket digital twin health management system, as well as new domestic design standards. It enables China to achieve a breakthrough from zero to one in many design technologies," said Wang Huoping, deputy manager of CNOOC Liuhua Oilfield secondary development project.
With a weight of 37,000 tonnes and a height of nearly 30 stories, Haikui No. 1 has a maximum oil storage capacity of 60,000 tonnes, and it can operate continuously at sea for 15 years without returning to dock.
With a height of 428 meters and a weight of over 50,000 tonnes, Haiji-2 is the most advanced deepwater jacket platform in Asia.
"The project team has overcome 25 key technical challenges, including the design, construction, installation and debugging of ultra-large deepwater jacket platform and cylindrical FPSO equipment. We have comprehensively mastered the integrated technology set of deepwater oil and gas engineering at a depth of over 300 meters, enabling China to independently design and manufacture different types of deepwater oil and gas equipment according to different conditions of oilfields and sea areas," said Shu Wei, project manage of Liuhua Oilfield with Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd.
China sets seal on building milestone deepwater oil-gas equipment
China launched the two final backup satellites of BeiDou-3 navigation system on Thursday morning, enhancing its stability and laying foundation for the next-generation navigation system.
These latest satellites, the 59th and 60th in the series launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, were elevated into the skies by a Long March-3B carrier rocket, marking a significant step in China's advancement of its homegrown satellite navigation system.
The BeiDou-3 satellite system now has 30 in-orbit satellites, including 24 in medium earth orbit, occupying three separate orbital planes. Of the six remaining satellites, three are in geostationary earth orbit, meaning their speed follows the earth's rotation without an incline. The other three are in an inclined geosynchronous orbit, meaning they also match the earth's rotation but their altitude varies significantly along the orbit path.
Most of these satellites have been in operation for six years, providing a robust framework for precise location services.
According to BeiDou-3’s chief designer Liu Yingchun, the latest launches will ensure greater stability for the navigation system.
"All operational satellites in the BeiDou-3 constellation system are currently running stably, meeting the required indicators for year-round availability. There are now eight satellites on each medium earth orbit plane. With the launch of the two final satellites, each orbital plane will have a total of 10 satellites. These satellites require routine maintenance and management. The number of satellites able to offer services on each orbital plane must be adequate even when some satellites are undergoing maintenance. Therefore, we've deployed backup satellites on each orbital plane consecutively," Liu explained.
While strengthening the BeiDou network's service capabilities, Chinese scientists are also exploring next-generation satellite technology. Given that the majority of satellites have a designed lifespan of 10 years, China has begun plans to upgrade the BeiDou system's constellation satellites.
"Moving forward, we'll work on the deployment of BeiDou-4. The two satellites represent the final group of Beidou-3, serving as a bridge between the current and future generations. Aside from fulfilling their routine tasks as satellites of the constellation, they will also be engaged in technical validation and exploration projects," said Liu.
The BeiDou navigation satellite system, a global satellite navigation system independently developed and operated by China, has completed its three-step strategy, which is not the end but a new starting point for BeiDou. The successful construction of the BeiDou-3 system has laid a solid foundation for the development of future generations of BeiDou systems.
China aims to build a more ubiquitous, integrated and intelligent comprehensive positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system by 2035, which will serve global users better. The upcoming comprehensive PNT system will be an enhancement over the existing network, extending high-precision services globally and addressing technical challenges such as weak satellite navigation signals and interference, aiming to enable underwater and indoor navigation as well as deep space navigation.
The BeiDou system is designed to provide all-weather, all-time, high-precision positioning, navigation and timing services to users worldwide. The three-step strategy involved the development of the BeiDou-1 system by the end of 2000, the BeiDou-2 system extending services to the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2012, and the BeiDou-3 system, which officially began offering global services in 2020.
BeiDou's latest satellite launch to boost stability, advance next-gen navigation system
