China's shipbuilders sailing on brighter journey

World's first M350 FPSO vessel delivered

The hull and living quarters of the Bacalhau — the world's first M350 floating, production, storage and offloading vessel — were delivered on May 26 at the Changxingdao shipyard in Dalian, Liaoning province, marking a breakthrough for the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

The vessel has been jointly designed and built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, a subsidiary of State-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, and FPSO contractor Modec for international energy company Equinor, which is headquartered in Norway.

The M350 FPSO features a hull about 350 meters long. The new vessel's material scale and scale parameters make it the largest in the world, with a total length of 364 meters, a beam of 64 meters and a depth of 33 meters.