Nantong to build world’s largest oil production vessel

The largest domestic FPSO built by China Ocean Shipping Company is delivered to Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras on Dec 17, 2016. [Photo/IC]

China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co plans to build a Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel valued at $1.2 billion in Haimen, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province.

The news was announced after China Merchants Industry Holdings Co, the marine and offshore manufacturing arm of the State-owned China Merchants Group, signed a construction contract with the Monacan branch of the Dutch-based SBM Offshore on April 4.

With a displacement of 460,000 metric tons, the ship is 333 meters long, 60m wide, and 33m high. It boasts a storage capacity of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil.

The ship will be the largest FPSO in the world in terms of displacement and storage capacity.

Construction on the ship is projected to start in August and finish by the end of January 2021.