A worker monitors a pipeline carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a tanker at the CNOOC Tianjin Port LNG receiving terminal in North China's Tianjin on Monday. Photo: IC

Chinese state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) unveiled a home-grown floating production storage and offloading vessel, known as an FPSO, with the deepest working depth, at 420 meters underwater, on Friday. 

CNOOC said the vessel will help boost oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.

The 256-meter-long vessel, Hai Yang Shi You 119, is a start-of-art oil and gas exploration and extraction platform and the newest to join CNOOC's FPSO fleet, now reaching 17 units and has a world-leading total tonnage.

The FPSO, delivered at the Qingdao Port in East China's Shandong Province after 22 months of construction, will serve at the Liuhua 16-2 offshore oil field in the South China Sea.  

Dubbed as a seaborne oil and gas process plant, FPSO handles the extraction, storage and output of oil and gas and is self-propelled.  It is considered the crown jewel of marine engineering. 

The Hai Yang Shi You 119 can handle 21,000 cubic meters of crude oil and 540,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day and can withstand typhoons.

CNOOC said the specialist vessel can be deployed under rough sea conditions in the South China Sea for a long time due to its advanced single point mooring system, the company said, adding there were only four such systems globally. 

Wang Dongjin, chairman of CNOOC, said the company will make South China Sea the "main battleground" for future oil and gas exploration and promote its seven-year action plan to boost production.

As of the end of 2018, CNOOC had two large 10-million-ton oil and gas projects in the South China Sea, with their combined output accounting for one third of the company's total.