New offshore platform taps into potential of heavy-oil reserves in China

The world's first mobile thermal-injection platform was recently delivered in China's Shandong province, offering new opportunities to tap into China's vast potential for heavy-oil recovery, according to the country's major marine oil-mining company.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Thursday that "Recai No.1" or "Thermal Recovery No.1", the mobile thermal-injection platform developed and built by China, has been delivered in waters off Weihai, Shandong.

The two-deck platform is 82 meters long and 42 meters wide, with a total deck area of over 3,000 square meters, a weight of over 10,000 tonnes and a height equivalent to a building of more than 20 stories.

Equipped with four legs that are over 70 meters high, the platform can operate in waters at the depth of 35 meters, and withstand typhoons up to category 16.

According to CNOOC, the platform features a number of pioneering technologies, including the mobile thermal-injection system and the compensation technology for high-temperature, high-pressure steam pipelines.

它配备了三个蒸汽锅炉系统，可以同时向六口油井注入超过350摄氏度的高压蒸汽，降低稠油的粘度，将其转化为流动性更强、更容易开采的原油。

该平台可通过拖船拖至不同采油平台进行快速热注入，有效降低稠油开发成本，实现稠油规模化热采。

重油是指粘度较大、流动性差、难以开采的原油。与传统原油使用的冷采方法不同，重油通常通过热采来开发。

Heavy oil makes up more than two-thirds of the world's proven crude oil reserves. As one of the world's four major producers of heavy oil, China has an estimated heavy-oil resource volume of about 19.87 billion tonnes. In the Bohai Sea area with which Shandong province has a coastline, heavy-oil reserves account for nearly half of the total proven crude oil reserves in the area.