China's first deep-water stratigraphic structure map will be completed as the country's independently developed "Haijing" system, a marine seismic exploration and acquisition equipment using submarine cables, is carrying out the 3,000-meter ultra-deep seabed geology exploration.
Following more than a month of exploration, the system, deployed by Haiyang Shiyou 720 (Offshore Oil 720), a large deep-water geophysical exploration vessel owned by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), is now exploring the last block in the 3,000-meter depth area of the mission, nearly 500 kilometers south of Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province.
Seismic exploration is the most direct way to find oil and gas resources in the vast depths of the ocean, and submarine cable-enabled seismic exploration technology is the most direct, cost-effective and efficient method for seabed geological structure detection.
The "Haijing" system, the first set of underwater cable-based seismic exploration acquisition equipment developed and manufactured by China, is composed of a variety of equipment systems, including submarine cable-powered acquisition, integrated navigation, and positioning and control.
During the mission, the Haiyang Shiyou 720 vessel deployed 10 submarine cables of the "Haijing" system to carry out the data collection work covering an area of 2,500 square kilometers along the designated route.
Each cable measures more than 8 kilometers long, equivalent to the total length of 80 Haiyang Shiyou 720 vessels.
The spacing between the cables should be strictly controlled during the mission to ensure no entanglement or collision.
"Compared with imported equipment, the seismic data collected by 'Haijing' has a higher identification degree, which can accurately depict the complex geological structure of the 10,000-meter-level stratum through the water depth of 3,000 meters," said Ruan Fuming, chief engineer of "Haijing" equipment research and development at the CNOOC.
The overall performance of the equipment meets the current requirements of offshore oil exploration, said Ruan.
Asia's first large deep-water geophysical exploration vessel
China's independently developed Haiyang Shiyou 720 ship measures 13,061 tonnes in gross tonnage, 107 meters in length and 24 meters in width, with a design speed of 16 knots (about 30 kilometers per hour).
Sailing at a speed of 5 knots, the vessel has a pulling capacity of 100 tonnes and can tow 12 submarine cables of more than 8,000 meters and related equipment, covering an exploration area equivalent to 1,400 standard football fields.
It is able to explore an area of 60 square kilometers per day on average.
The vessel has completed 48 exploration projects at home and abroad, including two seismic exploration operations in the warm equatorial waters and the extremely cold areas near the North Pole.
It has covered an exploration area of 82,708 square kilometers, with a sailing distance of 140,642 kilometers, about 3.5 times the Earth's equator.