TIANJIN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on Tuesday began construction of facilities for a major oil and gas project in Qatar at a fabrication base in the coastal city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province.
Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. (COOEC) is the general contractor of the Bul Hanine (BH) EPIC project, which has a contract value of about 4 billion U.S. dollars.
The project is the largest, broadest in scope and most technically complex international offshore oil and gas engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) project undertaken by a Chinese enterprise to date, according to COOEC.
This project marks a further rise in the global competitiveness of China's high-end offshore engineering sector and is expected to contribute to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and deeper international oil and gas cooperation, the company said.
Invested and developed by QatarEnergy, the project is located in the Bul Hanine oilfield in the Qatari waters of the Persian Gulf. It involves more than 60 offshore oil and gas facilities, and 40 subsea pipelines and cables, as well as the modification of existing platforms and decommissioning of obsolete facilities.
The endeavor will require more than 130,000 tonnes of steel and covers the entire project chain: design, procurement, construction, transportation, offshore installation and final commissioning.
Leveraging China's complete offshore engineering industrial chain and achievements in digital transformation and upgrading, the company will extensively apply 3D digital modeling and full-process engineering simulation technologies in striving to build a benchmark project for international oil and gas cooperation, said Liu Peng, construction manager of COOEC's Qatar BH EPIC project.
In recent years, COOEC has expanded its presence in the international high-end offshore energy engineering market. From 2021 to 2025, it secured over 170 overseas projects in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Uganda and Thailand. ■
