A view of the heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. /CMG

The heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform, built by China, weighing 17,000 tonnes, was officially delivered after 34 months of construction in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday, marking a breakthrough in the country's large-scale offshore oil and gas equipment construction technology.

A view of the heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. /CMG

At the end of this month, the platform will be transported by a large cargo ship to its installation site, 6,400 nautical miles away, in the waters of Saudi Arabia. The platform is mainly responsible for collecting extracted offshore oil and gas and transporting it to land for processing. It consists of complex equipment such as large manifolds, pipeline cleaning, chemical treatment, and operation control.

A view of the heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. /CMG

The deck area is equivalent to 15 standard basketball courts and the height of the platform is higher than that of a 24-story residential building. The massive structure can collect and transport 24 million tonnes of crude oil and 7.4 billion cubic meters of gas every year, with platform scale, pipeline types and sizes, and system complexity all setting records on similar international platforms.

A view of the heaviest international offshore oil and gas platform in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. /CMG

The platform will be installed in the waters of Saudi Arabia to help the Marjan oilfield increase its production capacity. After the Marjan oilfield is fully operational, the annual crude oil production will reach 24 million tonnes.