China's first intelligent offshore drilling platform installed

SHENZHEN, May 17 (Xinhua) -- China's first intelligent offshore drilling platform was installed on Friday, according to the project team of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation in south China's Guangdong Province.

The platform, named "Huizhou 26-6" and weighing over 30,000 tonnes, has a projected deck area the size of eight standard basketball courts.

Wei Weirong, vice general manager of the project team, said the weight of the platform's upper block exceeds the limit of the lifting capacity of the floating crane, so the natural force of tides and the latest ship-load adjustment technologies were used during the installation.

The docking accuracy of the block insertion tip and the jacket was at the millimeter level, said Li Tao, general manager of the oilfield development project.

The amount of intelligent equipment is three times that of a traditional platform, but the space is reduced by one third. It has a series of powerful functions, such as intelligent production, intelligent drilling, equipment health management, intelligent security, etc., which can improve production efficiency by 20 percent and reduce operation and maintenance costs by 10 percent per year, according to the project team.