A 200,000-dwt floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO)
vessel, the largest of its kind in China, was launched earlier this
week in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast Liaoning Province.
The vessel was built by the Dalian New Ship-Building Heavy Industry
Company for use by the US petroleum giant Conoco in its development
of the Belanak oilfield in Indonesia.
The ship, 285 meters long, 58 meters wide and 26 meters deep, was
built according to US standards and will thus be able to resist
strong typhoons and operate in a fixed position in 90-meter-deep
water for 30 years, according to company officials.
It
is designed with a processing capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude
oil a day.
In
recent years, the Dalian company has built offshore drilling
platforms for domestic and overseas clients, in addition to two
150,000-dwt FPSO vessels for the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation.
With the use of advanced FPSO technology, the company has achieved
an average growth rate of 20 percent in annual output value from
offshore engineering projects.
(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2003)