Bureau Veritas, Brazilian University Speeds Deepwater Development
International classification society Bureau Veritas has agreed a technical co-operation deal with COPPE/UFRJ, the Ocean Engineering department of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, to set up a joint development centre. The move builds on co-operation agreements with nineteen universities in China, Russia, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwan and France and is intended to speed the development of tools and technical requirements needed to facilitate Brazil’s expansion into deep offshore oil exploitation. Pierre Besse, Vice-President Research and Development for Bureau Veritas said, “We will initially have four people working full time on the Rio university development group…
China Shipbuilders Ready to Foray into Offshore Engineering
Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Co Ltd began building CNOOC 201, a deepwater pipe laying and lifting vessel for China National Offshore Oil Corporation in Rugao Port of Nantong City in Jiangsu Province on September 16th 2008. CNOOC Engineering plans to input CNY 15 billion(USD2bn) in construction of a series of deepwater equipment including deep sea drilling vessels, ready to focus on deepwater prospecting, since most of the country's newly discovered oilfields are deep undersea. According to South Korean companies' experience, the gross margin of offshore engineering reaches up to 30%, while that of China's domestic shipbuilding industry has only hit 18% to 19% since the beginning of 2008.
Qingdao and CNOOC Sign Contract
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.
