On May 10, Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, rolled out China’s first intelligent production line for the process piping of deep-water oil and gas equipment at its deep-water equipment manufacturing base in Zhuhai City, in South China’s Guangdong Province.
Now entering the debugging stage, the production line integrates a production management and control system, an intelligent logistics system, and AI-powered visual boundary detection. This advancement injects fresh momentum into the high-quality development of China’s deep-water offshore equipment manufacturing.
Process piping is seen as the “arteries” of offshore oil and gas development facilities, the core infrastructure for offshore energy production. Its construction quality directly determines operational safety throughout the service life of these assets.
In deep-water environments, facilities are required to operate continuously under extreme conditions, including high pressure, high temperature and severe corrosion. It places more stringent requirements on the reliability of process piping, the professional competence of workers, and the robustness of process design.
The production line comprises key modules such as a manufacturing execution system, an integrated assembly and welding system, an AI-powered visual inspection system, and an automated guided vehicle-based smart logistics system. This setup seamlessly connects critical operational links, including rust removal and coding, smart logistics, precision assembly, and adaptive welding.
Varied specifications, diverse materials and complex processes have remained challenges for the deep-water oil and gas process piping sector. Over the past two years, the project team collaborated with leading domestic intelligent equipment manufacturers to overcome the barriers to integrating the intelligent production hardware with supporting software. These breakthroughs have enabled end-to-end intelligent production, featuring flexible work order scheduling, one-click manufacturing, and seamless remote centralized control. The result is a significant improvement in both productivity and product quality.
Aiming for technology incubation and industrial application, the project team is steadily advancing the work of debugging on the production line. Efforts are underway to continuously optimize system performance and enhance process compatibility, laying a solid foundation for the upcoming demonstration and engineering-scale application of the production line.
(Executive editor: Zuo Shihan)
