Wenchang Deep-Sea Floating Wind Project Connected to Grid

The Wenchang deep-sea floating wind demonstration project has been connected to the grid by CNOOC Limited. As the connection was finalized near the end of last month, the project will now be able to start delivering power to the grid.

The demonstration project is located near the Wenchang oilfields in the western part of the South China Sea, 136 kilometers (84.5 miles) away from the shore in a water depth of 120 meters (390 feet).

It is the world's first semi-submersible "double hundred" deep-sea floating wind project serving in a water depth of over 100 meters (330 feet) and with an offshore distance of over 100 kilometers (62 miles), CNOOC said in its statement.

The project's main production facility Haiyou Guanlan is China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform that supplies power to an offshore oilfield “under the most challenging oceanic conditions”, CNOOC outlined. With an installed capacity of 7.25 MW, the platform can produce up to 22 million kWh of electricity, equivalent to saving nearly 10 million cubic meters of natural gas and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 tons per year. CNOOC Limited owns 100 percent equity interest in the demonstration project.

“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,” Wang Dongjin, Chairman of the company, said.

To remind, Haiyou Guanlan, China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform invested in and built by CNOOC, set sail from Zhuhai towards Hainan towards the end of March. Additionally, at the start of the month, CNOOC commissioned China's first offshore CCS demonstration project.

The CCS project is an auxiliary part of the Enping 15-1 oilfields development. Enping 15-1 oilfield is located in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, about 190 kilometers (118 miles) southwest of Hong Kong, with an average water depth of approximately 80 meters (260 feet) and has a high carbon dioxide content.

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