At 07:28 on June 21, the 50,000 DWT semi-submersible heavy lift vessel “Xiang Ruikou” of COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers successfully completed the unloading and full配套 engineering operations for COSCO Shipping Oilfield Services’ “COSL AE1 (Asia Endeavor 1)” jack-up drilling platform at Xiuying Anchorage in Haikou. This marked the successful conclusion of the cross-border mobilization and total package transportation task for this large-scale high-end offshore engineering equipment. The entire project, from the formal contract signing on May 28 to the platform’s landing on June 21, took less than a month, setting an industry benchmark speed with an ultra-short cycle performance record, vividly demonstrating the safe and efficient one-stop delivery capability of COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers’ semi-submersible fleet.
The “COSL AE1” platform is a core主力 drilling rig for COSCO Shipping Oilfield Services, with a total weight exceeding 14,800 tons, comparable in size to 1.5 Eiffel Towers. Its 153.35-meter ultra-high legs are approximately equivalent to the height of a 50-story residential building. The equipment has a massive structure and is densely packed with precision components, imposing extremely high requirements on the operational precision of maritime transport, underwater inspection, and positioning construction. The platform had been serving overseas since 2019 for seven years. This is its first mobilization back to China since entering service. After comprehensive maintenance at the Haikou anchorage, it will depart for the Weizhou Oilfield in the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi to resume production operations.
This cross-border mobilization project was统筹 implemented by COSCO Shipping Guangzhou Salvage Bureau Semi-submersible Vessel Transportation Co., Ltd. as the general contractor. Different from traditional maritime transport which only provides basic logistics of loading, shipping, and unloading, this total package covered over ten processes including auxiliary leg pulling, transoceanic wet tow, cross-border customs clearance, personnel transfer, assistance with inspection, precise positioning, and auxiliary leg insertion. It打通 the entire process from overseas demobilization to domestic landing, requiring the owner to only interface at a single point, effectively reducing multi-party coordination costs and significantly compressing the project timeline.
Particularly noteworthy is that during the platform unloading period, the project team relied on mature semi-submersible vessel ballast water dynamic regulation technology to precisely control the vessel’s buoyancy and floating attitude, creating a quasi-dry dock operating environment. This ensured the platform’s underwater parts were completely exposed, facilitating efficient comprehensive underwater flaw detection and inspection. Simultaneously, they统筹 deployed a coordinated fleet of high-horsepower main tugs and azimuthing assist tugs to meticulously complete the platform leg alignment and pre-treatment procedures for leg penetration, preventing major safety hazards such as leg collisions and positioning deviations at the source, thereby laying a solid foundation for the platform’s subsequent offshore safe production.
The execution of this project set a record for an extremely short performance cycle: from the formal contract signing on May 28 to the completion of overseas loading on June 6, the entire process took only 10 days. Concurrently, a massive amount of preparatory work was completed, including construction plan preparation, comprehensive risk classification and assessment for the entire area, vessel and supporting equipment maintenance and commissioning, and cross-border full procedure documentation. During the loading operation, facing the complex and variable local sea area weather, the project team closely monitored the weather window to seize the opportunity for operation, successfully completing the loading and safely departing before the arrival of typhoon surges, effectively avoiding demurrage and navigation risks. During the voyage, all crew members maintained 24-hour shift watches, strictly monitoring the condition of the vessel and cargo. Relying on a full-process refined risk control system, the entire project achieved zero safety accidents, zero equipment collisions, zero component damage, and zero positioning deviation. Ultimately, the “COSL AE1” platform completed its transoceanic voyage in two weeks and returned safely to its domestic position within one month. COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers’ semi-submersible fleet, with its one-stop full-chain efficient service, strongly ensured the rapid global mobility and safe, stable mobilization of high-end offshore engineering equipment, providing solid logistical support for global energy development.
