Lingshui 17-2 Gas Field Development

The Lingshui 17-2 gas field located in the South China Sea is considered to be the first deep-water independent gas field development in China.

Discovered in 2014, the offshore gas field is being developed by China’s state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

Expected to come on stream in the first half of 2021, the Lingshui 17-2 gas field is expected to produce up to 58,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) a day.

Location and reserves

The Lingshui 17-2 gas field is located in the western part of the northern South China Sea, approximately 150km off the coast of Sanya, Hainan province, China. The deep-water field is situated in the northern Qiongdongnan Basin at a water depth of up to 1,560m.

The Lingshui 17-2 gas field is estimated to hold in excess of 100 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas reserves in place.

Lingshui 17-2 gas field development details

The Lingshui 17-2 gas field development comprises 11 development wells, a subsea production system, along with a semi-submersible production platform.

The subsea production system includes 11 horizontal subsea trees, four manifolds, topside and subsea control system, and a vertical tie-in connection system. The overall length of the static and dynamic umbilicals required for the project will be in excess of 70km.

The field development also includes the installation of subsea flowlines, two 10in-diameter steel catenary production risers (SCR), and two 12in-diameter production risers for connecting the subsea flowlines to the semi-submersible production platform. The gas output from the platform will be exported through a 95km-long, 18in-diameter pipeline.

The project is expected to supply in excess of three billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year to Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Hainan.

The development well drilling programme was started in December 2019, while the deep-water semi-submersible production platform arrived at the Lingshui 17-2 field in February 2021. The production platform wills have a condensate storage capacity of approximately 20,000 cubic metres.

Contractors involved

Aker Solutions bagged a contract worth more than £158.5mn ($206.3mn) to supply the subsea production system and umbilicals for the Lingshui 17-2 gas field development in October 2018.

Kongsberg Digital was sub-contracted by Aker Solutions to provide a production management system (PMS) with real-time flow assurance monitoring and virtual flow metering functionalities for the project in June 2019.

Offshore Oil Engineering (COOEC), a subsidiary of CNOOC, was involved in the development of the Lingshui 17-2 semi-submersible production platform, while Mammoet performed the load-out of the semi-submersible hull, weighing approximately 34,000t, for the gas field project in November 2020.

Subsea 7 was awarded a contract worth up to £112.5mn ($150mn) by COOEC, for the transportation and installation of five steel catenary risers with diameters ranging from 10in to 18in for the Lingshui 17-2 gas field development project in December 2019.

Allseas bagged its first-ever contract in China for the installation of the export pipeline, flowlines, monoethylene (MEG) lines, and pipeline end terminations (PLETs) for the Lingshui 17-2 gas fields from (COOEC). Allseas’ pipelaying vessel Audacia and trenching support vessel Calamity Jane were deployed to execute the contract.

Tenaris was contracted to supply approximately 7,200t of pipe for steel catenary risers at the Lingshui 17-2 gas field, while InterMoor was contracted to install mooring systems for the Lingshui 17-2 floating production facility in May 2019.

Oil States received a contract to supply deep-water steel catenary riser FlexJoint™ assembly packages for the Lingshui 17-2 gas field project, while MacGregor, a subsidiary of Cargotec, supplied the on-vessel mooring systems and riser pull-in system for the Lingshui 17-2 deep-water floating production unit in June 2020 and November 2020 respectively.

Rodelta supplied 19 API OH2 pumps, four API VS6 pumps, and eight vertical in-line pumps for the Lingshui 17-2 gas field project in 2020.