China Connects Deepwater Floating Wind Platform to Wenchang Oilfield

May 22, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has grid-connected its Haiyou Guanlan deepwater floating wind turbine and integrated it into the power grid of the Wenchang oilfield.

Earlier this month, CNOOC announced the 5-kilometre dynamic subsea cable was installed, which set up the transmission link between the offshore oil and gas platforms of the Wenchang oilfield to the floating wind platform.

The Haiyou Guanlan demonstration project is located near the Wenchang oilfields in the western part of the South China Sea, 136 kilometres offshore in a water depth of 120 metres. The 7.25 MW floater is the first in China that supplies power to an offshore oilfield.

According to CNOOC, the floating wind turbine is also the world’s first semi-submersible “double hundred” deep-sea floating wind project, operating in a water depth of over 100 metres and with an offshore distance of over 100 kilometres.

With an installed capacity of 7.25 MW, the platform can produce up to 22 GWh of electricity, equivalent to saving nearly 10 million cubic metres of natural gas and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 tonnes per year, the Chinese oil giant says.

The fully assembled floating wind platform set sail from Zhuhai in China’s Guangdong province to Wenchang in March.

Haiyou Guanlan features Mingyang Smart Energy’s MySE 7.25-158 hybrid drive typhoon-proof wind turbine, capable of withstanding up to a Level 17 typhoon with a maximum average wind speed of over 60 metres per second for ten minutes.

“The successful commissioning of ‘Haiyou Guanlan’ demonstrates the latest achievement of CNOOC Limited in the integrated development of offshore oilfields and new energy business. The Company has made the most out of our intrinsic comparative advantages and China’s leading wind power technologies. It also marks an important step forward for the Company to tap offshore green energy resources”, said Wang Dongjin, Chairman of CNOOC Limited.