Tenaris is set to start production for the second half of line pipe production for China National Oil Offshore Corporation’s (CNOOC) Lingshui project in the South China Sea amid a transformed way of operating resulting from COVID-19.
Lingshui 17-2 is a highly complex gas field located in the Quiongdongnan Basin offshore China with water depths of 1,200 to 1,560 meters below the sea surface, demanding a high level of technical expertise and product requirements.
Tenaris’s technical capabilities were key to receiving the award by CNOOC in 2019 to supply 7,200 tons of pipe for steel catenary risers, ranging from 6 to 18 inches. This includes 2,700 tons of expanders as well as non-standard products.
Tenaris is producing specialized heavy wall pipes at its mill in Dalmine, Italy. And for the non-standard 18” seamless buckle arrestors – needed for the welded export line not included in Tenaris’s scope of work – the team in Italy has also been supporting via its external network of service suppliers.
Due to the extreme water depths, Lingshui presents a challenging first development in an ultra-deep water environment for the country. The technical requirements have been a critical undertaking as well as the administrative and logistics management in which Tenaris worked in collaboration with CNOOC contractors as some aspects of the design were defined after the contract award.
The emergence of COVID-19 in China slowed down the project, and it was further impacted by the health crisis’ global spread. With China and Italy, as well as other countries, reopening their economies following lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus, Tenaris and CNOOC have defined the way forward for the completion of the project scope.
“We have been working with heightened preventative and protective measures in place to keep our employees safe and well, and to be able to continue to effectively produce for our customers,” said Gregoire Flipo, Tenaris Commercial Vice President, Europe. “Lingshui is a unique project, in magnitude and complexity, and we have the capability in expertise from our teams and industrial system to deliver.”
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