Using the overall floating installation method, the upper module weighing 15,000 tons is connected to the offshore jacket with an error of no more than 5 mm. The largest offshore crude oil production platform designed and built by my country, the Lufeng 14-4 Central Platform, was successfully installed in the eastern South China Sea on the 18th. It is expected to be put into operation at the end of the year, providing more oil and gas resources for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Floating installation operation

The Lufeng 14-4 central platform is located in the Lufeng Oilfield Group about 200 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong. The platform is composed of an upper block and a lower jacket. It stands on the sea at a depth of 145 meters. The total height is 218 meters, which is equivalent to a 70-story building. The total weight is nearly 30,000 tons, which is more than the weight of 3 Eiffel Towers.

Gao Shuang, general manager of the regional development project of CNOOC Lufeng Oilfield Group, revealed that the platform is built in an integrated mode, and the functional modules are assembled on land in a “building block” manner. After two days of offshore installation, it can satisfy personnel to settle in.

The floating installation operation is to dock the upper module weighing 15,000 tons with the jacket. The platform is so large that it cannot use traditional hoisting methods. For this reason, the core technology of integral floating installation is adopted. In the undulating sea, accurately docking the upper block of the platform with the 163-meter-high "support", the error does not exceed 5 mm, and its technical difficulty is comparable to the docking of a spacecraft and a space station.

Floating installation is to use the natural forces of tidal fluctuations to install a large offshore oil and gas platform on the jacket in a manner similar to the "jerk" of a weightlifter. This technology can minimize the amount of offshore construction and switch to prefabrication on land ahead of time. It has the advantages of low cost, high efficiency, and heavy lifting. It is currently widely used in the installation of 10,000-ton offshore platforms.

After more than ten years of technological innovation and breakthroughs, my country has successively overcome a variety of floating installation technologies such as conventional high-position floatation and low-position floatation. It has all-weather and all-sea floatation technology and construction capabilities. The types of floatation installations that we have mastered The quantity, difficulty of operation and technical complexity are among the best in the world.

Yang Lianfeng, the project manager of the Lufeng Oilfield Group, said that floating installation requires extremely high sea conditions. The Lufeng 14-4 central platform is located in the eastern waters of the South China Sea, where there are special sea conditions such as internal wave currents and long wave surges. The project team overcomes the challenges of short operating window, high construction risk, and variable sea conditions on site. Through various safeguard measures such as organizing risk analysis, carrying out floating simulation simulation exercises, and real-time monitoring of the process, it has ensured that this floating installation operation is foolproof. .

On the "Offshore Oil 201" pipe-laying crane ship involved in the operation, a close-up shot of the Lufeng 14-4 central platform, which has been installed, was taken at the rear, with the barge and tugboat undertaking the operation.

It is reported that after the Lufeng 14-4 central platform is put into operation, it will mainly develop two oil fields, Lufeng 14-4 and Lufeng 14-8. This is the first large-scale development of deep low-permeability oil fields in the South my country Sea, which is extremely difficult to develop. CNOOC has innovated ideas, promoted the joint development of the 100 million-ton Lufeng oilfield group, and adopted the first large-scale artificial water injection development plan in the South China Sea, which can significantly improve the effect of oilfield development.Editor/Baohongying