The Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) have recently signed a contract on the building of a 100,000-ton FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading) vessel in Haixi Bay of Qingdao.
Qingdao will thus become China's third FPSO vessel building base after Dalian and Shanghai.
FPSO, used for offshore oil exploitation and production, has a high technology content and is difficult to build. In China, only the Dalian New Shipbuilding Heavy Industries and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. can build such special vessels at present.
The cooperation between CNOOC and Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industries seeks to transform Haixi Bay of Qingdao into the country's most powerful FPSO vessel building base.
The building of the 100,000-ton FPSO vessel will start in March of 2006, slated for completion in December 2007. It will be used for exploiting the Xijiang Oilfield in
South China Sea.