Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

CHINA National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) officially puts its Liuhua 21-2 oil field into operation today, the company has announced.

The operation of the oil field, which is located in the eastern South China Sea and 250 kilometers southeast of Shenzhen, marks completion of the deepwater Liuhua 16-2 oil field cluster.

The Liuhua oilfield cluster includes the development of one 150,000 DWT (deadweight ton) floating production storage and offloading (FPSO), the offshore oil and gas processing plant, as well as the Liuhua 16-2, 20-2 and 21-2 oil fields. The three fields are located in the waters of the South China Sea ranging from 380 to 430 meters deep.

“As the country’s largest oil field cluster in the South China Sea, it is expected to have a peak production capacity of more than 4.5 million cubic meters of crude oil, satisfying the fuel consumption of more than 4 million cars a year,” said Yuan Wei, manager of the operation department of CNOOC Shenzhen.

The Liuhua 16-2 and 20-2 oil fields were put into operation in September and October last year, respectively, and had generated 3.8 million cubic meters of crude oil by the end of July. With the operation of the Liuhua 21-2 oil field, the daily output of the oil field cluster will reach 14,000 cubic meters, taking up one-fifth of total gas and oil production of the eastern oil fields in the South China Sea.

The oil field cluster is the largest underground gas and oil production system in Asia with most underwater wells and deepest underwater depth.

The crude oil of the three oil fields is produced underwater and is sent back to the FPSO. The plant, named Hai Yang Shi You 119 and built by CNOOC, measures 255.8 meters long, 48.9 meters wide and 26.6 meters deep, according to Du Shengdao, facility manager of FPSO.

The plant is designated to handle 50,000 barrels of oil per day. It consists of crude oil and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) offloading reels, a tandem mooring system, a hydraulic power unit and equipment controls. It is the most complicated floating production storage and offloading system so far applied in subsea oil production in China.

The 119 FPSO is installed with a domestically developed light hydrocarbon collection system. With the operation of the Liuhua 21-2 oil field, the daily output of light hydrocarbon will exceed 300 cubic meters. The collection not only reduces emissions, but also creates benefits of nearly 100 million yuan (US$15.46 million) a year.

Since the start of this year, CNOOC has made breakthroughs with the operation of the self-developed Deepsea No. 1 gas field, which can provide 3 billion cubic meters of gas to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Hainan.

The operation of the Deepsea No. 1 gas field and the Liuhua 16-2 oil field cluster marks the country’s oceanic oil industry going deepwater and joining the ranks of advanced oil-producing countries.