"BEIJING, May 25 (UPI) -- China's most advanced deep-water oil rig is set for a trial voyage Thursday, People's Daily Online reports.
The 31,000-ton rig with a deck the size of a football field was delivered Monday to state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country's largest offshore oil producer.
Its manufacturer, China State Shipbuilding Corp., says the massive rig -- called CNOOC 981 -- is capable of undertaking an offshore operation at a water depth of 10,000 feet and drilling a length of 39,000 feet.
towermonkey wrote: Bet they'll use it in the gulf.
From the link.
"Dubbed the "second Persian Gulf," the South China Sea is estimated to contain more than 50 billion tons of crude oil and more than 20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
CNOOC Chairman Wang Yilin said the deep-water rig represents an opportunity for China to ensure its energy security.
Government statistics indicate that China -- the world's second largest oil importer behind the United States -- imported 84.96 million tons of crude oil in the first four months this year, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier.
China's latest five-year-plan, 2011-15, calls for "actively developing offshore oil and gas."
