Typhoon Pearl causes no spills, casualties

Offshore staff

(China)-Cnooc reports that the Typhoon Pearl, the first typhoon of the season, did not cause any casualties or spills in the company's South China Sea operations.

The typhoon arrived in the eastern South China Sea last week and suddenly turned at a right angle toward the Liuhua oil field. The center of Typhoon Pearl struck the field directly, packing winds exceeding the designed 100-yr resisting capacity for a typhoon.

The company had been monitoring the typhoon and had completed the evacuation of the offshore field in a timely manner before its arrival. The evacuation encompassed 144 flights for over 3,840 offshore personnel from 25 platforms and FPSOs on 17 oil fields in the eastern South China Sea. Cnooc also shut down wells and production facilities ahead of the evacuation.

After the landing of the Pearl, the company thoroughly examined all the oil fields in the area. All the production facilities, with the exception of the one in the Liuhua oil field, were not damaged and have restarted production. The examination discovered that part of the production facilities at Liuhua was damaged.

The company mobilized various service companies, including subsea services and examination contractors, to conduct the subsea examination in order to determine the extent of the damage. According to the examination, seven anchors and three risers were split and broken.

The company is arranging to tug the FPSO to a safe area while a team of designers, manufacturers, installation contractors and others are organized to prepare a restart plan for the field. Cnooc says that the production capacity of Liuhua oil field is approximately 22,000 b/d of oil.

Mr. Zhou Shouwei, president of Cnooc, commented: "During the strike of Typhoon Pearl, we organized very large-scale evacuations and production restarts in an efficient manner, leading to no casualties and no spills. This indicated Cnooc Ltd's approach of treating HSE as the top priority."

5/26/2006