China Opens Its First Smart Factory for Offshore Oil and Gas Equipment
China's inaugural intelligent manufacturing base for offshore oil and gas equipment officially commenced full operations on Wednesday in Tianjin Municipality, located in northern China.
TroibNews 
China's first intelligent manufacturing base for offshore oil and gas equipment began full operations on Wednesday in Tianjin Municipality, located in northern China.
Spanning approximately 575,000 square meters along the Bohai Sea coast, the facility focuses on creating offshore oil and gas platforms and advanced offshore products, including liquefied natural gas modules. This base was constructed by the China Offshore Oil Engineering Company, a subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
The manufacturing base comprises four intelligent production workshops, eight auxiliary production centers, and 16 final assembly stations, along with critical facilities such as docks for transporting products via large ships. Over 600 intelligent production machines are operational within this facility.
In contrast to traditional manufacturing processes, various operations, including material retrieval, pipe coiling, cutting, and hydraulic bending, can now be executed with a single click through an intelligent manufacturing management platform at the Tianjin site.
Wang Lei, a senior executive at the Tianjin branch of COOEC, noted the complexities involved in producing various offshore oil and gas equipment in the past, often requiring complicated manufacturing processes and customized, non-standard requirements.
To address these challenges, COOEC developed an intelligent manufacturing management platform aimed at facilitating smart production under these complex conditions, according to Wang.
"More manufacturing processes are now achieved through the use of equipment, while only a small number of workers are needed to undertake detail adjustment tasks," said Wang.
The base was built in two phases. The first phase was operational in June 2022, resulting in the delivery of 35 offshore oil and gas platforms to countries, including China and Canada, with a total weight exceeding 87,000 tonnes.
During the second phase of construction, eight final assembly stations and an intelligent pipe production line were added, along with an increase in dock capacity.
"Production efficiency achieved by the intelligent pipe production line has increased by about 20 percent when compared to what was possible in the first phase, and the overall production capacity of the factory has doubled through digital intelligent manufacturing and precise management," Wang revealed.
As of 2023, China's offshore crude oil production surpassed 62 million tonnes, showing a year-on-year increase of 3.4 million tonnes, which accounts for about 70 percent of the total increase in the country’s crude oil production last year.
Jessica Kline contributed to this report for TROIB News
Spanning approximately 575,000 square meters along the Bohai Sea coast, the facility focuses on creating offshore oil and gas platforms and advanced offshore products, including liquefied natural gas modules. This base was constructed by the China Offshore Oil Engineering Company, a subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
The manufacturing base comprises four intelligent production workshops, eight auxiliary production centers, and 16 final assembly stations, along with critical facilities such as docks for transporting products via large ships. Over 600 intelligent production machines are operational within this facility.
In contrast to traditional manufacturing processes, various operations, including material retrieval, pipe coiling, cutting, and hydraulic bending, can now be executed with a single click through an intelligent manufacturing management platform at the Tianjin site.
Wang Lei, a senior executive at the Tianjin branch of COOEC, noted the complexities involved in producing various offshore oil and gas equipment in the past, often requiring complicated manufacturing processes and customized, non-standard requirements.
To address these challenges, COOEC developed an intelligent manufacturing management platform aimed at facilitating smart production under these complex conditions, according to Wang.
"More manufacturing processes are now achieved through the use of equipment, while only a small number of workers are needed to undertake detail adjustment tasks," said Wang.
The base was built in two phases. The first phase was operational in June 2022, resulting in the delivery of 35 offshore oil and gas platforms to countries, including China and Canada, with a total weight exceeding 87,000 tonnes.
During the second phase of construction, eight final assembly stations and an intelligent pipe production line were added, along with an increase in dock capacity.
"Production efficiency achieved by the intelligent pipe production line has increased by about 20 percent when compared to what was possible in the first phase, and the overall production capacity of the factory has doubled through digital intelligent manufacturing and precise management," Wang revealed.
As of 2023, China's offshore crude oil production surpassed 62 million tonnes, showing a year-on-year increase of 3.4 million tonnes, which accounts for about 70 percent of the total increase in the country’s crude oil production last year.
Jessica Kline contributed to this report for TROIB News
