World's largest FPSO vessel sets sail from E China

The world's largest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, the M026 FPSO, set sail on Monday from a dock in Qidong City in east China's Jiangsu Province, setting a new tonnage towing record along the Yangtze River.

The M026 FPSO is 335.31 meters in length, 60 meters in width and 33.515 meters in height. The towing convoy, spanning 784.2 meters in length, comprised the M026 FPSO, along with patrol boats, tugboats and escort vessels.

Built by COSCO (Qidong) Offshore Offshore Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., the vessel will be deployed in an ultra-deep-water oil development project in Brazil. It is designed to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day, process 12 million standard cubic meters of natural gas, and store up to 1.4 million barrels of crude oil.

Known as a "floating refinery," the vessel holds the record for the largest tonnage and highest storage capacity in its class.