China's First Deepwater Multi-Purpose Vessel Operational

China’s first multi-purpose offshore vessel capable of operating in 3,000m water depths commenced operation on Sunday.

The DP-3 capable Offshore Oil 286 ship cost $163m and belongs to Offshore Oil Engineering, an affiliate of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country’s largest offshore oil and gas producer.

Xinhua reports that the ship is 141 meters long, 29 meters wide, has a maximum loading capacity of 11,228 tons and can accommodate 150 crew members. It has a 400-ton crane and is suitable for subsea installation, lifting, pipe-lay, dive support and inspection, maintenance and repair work.

The ship was built by CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding.

In 2014, CNOOC made a range of breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration. “Domestic, overseas and unconventional fields all bloomed, a series of fat gas structures were assessed as successful in succession and self-run exploration of deepwater field witnessed great breakthrough, laying solid resource foundation for second leap,” says CNOOC in a press release. The Lingshui 17-2 Gas Field is China’s first self-run deepwater project, and the company also successfully tested the Offshore Oil 981 deepwater drilling platform.

In 2014, CNOOC made a series of new exploration discoveries including Lingshui 17-2, Lvda 16-3 South, Kenli 16-1, and Lufeng 14-4. Among its overseas projects, the large-scale deepwater natural gas was discovered at Leopard in Gabon waters.

Looking forward, CNOOC aims to make new breakthroughs in crude oil exploration in 2015; continuously push forward integrated exploration and development; work out more effective measures for domestic unconventional oil-gas exploration and further optimize its overseas strategic layout, says CNOOC.