The world's first! The giant ship at sea upgrades new skills

About 50 minutes after taking a helicopter from Sanya, the reporter saw a bright yellow on the sparkling sea. Below the helicopter window, a "giant" was getting closer and closer, and the "iron arm" extending from its top was holding a burning torch high.

This is the world's first 100,000-ton deepwater semi-submersible production and storage platform, the "Deep Sea One". On March 19, the winners of the 7th China Industrial Award, the highest award in my country's industrial field, were announced, and the "Deep Sea One" project was on the list.

The "Deep Sea No. 1" energy station maintains production under complex sea conditions (photo taken on March 12). Photo by Xie Jixiao

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

On April 10, on the first anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping's connection to the "Deep Sea No. 1" operating platform, CNOOC announced another good news: "Deep Sea No. 1" has completed remote control production transformation and commissioning, and has the ability to maintain continuous, safe and stable production during typhoons, taking a key step towards the comprehensive construction of an ultra-deepwater intelligent gas field.

"Great Power's Heavy Weapons" Must Be Used Well

The reporter was quite shocked when he walked into the "Deep Sea No. 1" with a total height of 120 meters and a maximum projection area equivalent to the size of two standard football fields. The intricate pipelines and the "machine island" composed of 240,000 parts are the continuous output of natural gas from 1,500 meters underwater to the stoves of thousands of households.

From following to taking the historic lead with 3 world-class innovations and 13 domestic first-of-its-kind technologies, "Deep Sea One" has achieved a major breakthrough in China's deepwater oil and gas development and deepwater marine engineering equipment technology.

It is not only important to be able to manufacture “heavy weapons” of a great power, but also to use them well.

Li Jinsong, general manager of Lingshui-Yacheng Operations Company of China National Offshore Oil Corporation Hainan Branch, told reporters that since it was put into production on June 25, 2021, "Deep Sea No. 1" has been operating safely and stably for more than 650 days, with a cumulative gas production of more than 4.5 billion cubic meters and exported condensate oil of more than 450,000 cubic meters.

"We have independently established a complete ultra-deepwater gas field operation and maintenance technology system, which has solved a number of production and operation problems in ultra-deepwater gas fields. We are hailed as a development model for ultra-deepwater gas fields that quickly reach full production and maintain high and stable production after being put into production," said Li Jinsong.

The development and operation team of "Deep Sea No. 1" did not stop there. They hoped that "Deep Sea No. 1" would be more efficient and safer. "How to keep production in typhoon conditions" became the key research topic of the team.

On the operating platform of the control room of the Deepsea No.1 platform, a knob for switching between normal and typhoon modes attracted the attention of reporters. It is this knob that makes the Deepsea No.1 the world's first ultra-large deepwater semi-submersible production and storage platform with remote control production capabilities.

"When a typhoon or bad weather comes, we switch to 'typhoon mode' and the control center on land can take over all operations on the platform without having to stop production," a staff member told reporters.

Source: Official Weibo of China National Offshore Oil Corporation's newspaper

Remote control from thousands of miles away becomes a reality

The "Normal/Typhoon Mode Switch" knob is small, but it is hard-won.

The biggest challenge facing the stable production of "Deep Sea No. 1" is the frequent typhoons in summer and autumn. When the typhoon is severe, employees must evacuate the platform and stop work and production. Since its commissioning, "Deep Sea No. 1" has experienced 7 typhoons. Although the production team has tried to resume production in the shortest time, they believe that this unstable factor must be eliminated to minimize the impact of typhoon shutdowns on downstream users.

What's more, building an intelligent "Deep Sea No. 1" is the original intention of the R&D and design team.

"When we first designed 'Deep Sea One', we considered equipping it with this system, but since we have never developed ultra-deepwater gas fields, no one was sure." Li Li, deputy general manager of CNOOC Hainan Branch, frankly admitted that ultra-deepwater semi-submersible platforms have complex structures and harsh environmental conditions, and there have been no successful cases of remote control production in the world before.

"Innovation is what it means. First, we need to solve the problem of 'whether or not', and then solve the problem of 'whether it is good or not'," said Li Li.

At the beginning of last year, after the "Deep Sea One" had been operating stably for more than half a year, the remote control production system was put on the agenda.

The overall performance of the platform and the strength of the mooring system, the stability of the platform, the status of the risers and umbilical cables, the overall strength of the hull structure... There was no precedent, no data, and in the research and development of the remote control production system, the "Deep Sea One" team once again experienced the difficult journey of "from scratch".

After numerous calculations, modeling, and debugging, the R&D team determined key indicators such as the platform's storm-resistant draft safety range, as well as a modification and debugging plan involving more than 270 sets of related equipment. The modified equipment and the communication network built specifically for this purpose are equivalent to the "neural network" that perceives various operating indicators, and the onshore control center is equivalent to the "brain".

Video source: Official Weibo of the newspaper affiliated to China National Offshore Oil Corporation

"In theory, the production system of 'Deep Sea No. 1' can be remotely operated anywhere there is an Internet cable," said Li Jinsong. "The three previous remote monitoring tests and remote control production tests under severe sea conditions have shown that 'Deep Sea No. 1' has the ability to remotely control production."

Li Jinsong predicts that the completion of the remote control system will reduce production downtime caused by bad weather, and is expected to increase natural gas production by more than 60 million cubic meters per year, enough for 470,000 households to use for one year.

The future will be smarter

Thanks to the continuous efforts of the operation team, "Deep Sea One" is becoming smarter and more "intelligent".

Here, "remote control" is everywhere.

"We are simultaneously exploring the application of a variety of digital and intelligent technologies, striving to build ultra-deepwater intelligent gas fields and create a technologically advanced industry model," said Li Li.

By building a digital twin model of the ultra-deepwater gas field, technical experts at the base's production and operation center can fully understand the operating status of the "Deep Sea No. 1" and conduct remote diagnosis of equipment failures;

By upgrading its sound and light detection intelligent monitoring equipment, the "Deep Sea One" will gain stronger real-time perception capabilities and establish a three-dimensional security system covering both above and below the water.

Building an industrial IoT application scenario with 5G technology as the core, various devices on the platform can be interconnected, and operators can control the operation status of energy stations in real time through 5G terminals...

In Li Li's view, "Deep Sea No. 1" as an oil and gas production facility is also a large-scale comprehensive scientific research experimental platform.

This is the "Deep Sea No. 1" gas field photographed in the Lingshui waters of Hainan (photo taken on May 12, 2021). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Pu Xiaoxu

"We use the 'Deep Sea One' to carry out scientific experimental research on world-class technical challenges encountered in the development of deep-sea oil and gas resources, such as semi-submersible platform vessel mooring management, dynamic monitoring of deep-sea gas reservoir development, deep-sea underwater fluidity assurance, and visual management of deep-sea production operations. At the same time, we maintain close contact with domestic and foreign research institutions and universities to jointly carry out application research of digital and intelligent technologies in ultra-deepwater gas fields." said Li Li.

The South China Sea is full of wind and waves. "Deep Sea No. 1" stands tall at the forefront of innovation...

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Image source: Xinhua News Agency, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, etc.