China’s sixth-generation homemade deep-sea semi-submersible drilling platform has successfully completed its deep-sea trial, local media reported, marking a further improvement in China’s capability of manufacturing high-end deep-water drilling rigs.

The drilling platform is expected to conduct deep-sea operations in Chinese sea areas in the near future to open up new oil and gas fields.

Manufactured by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC), a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), the Chinese-made platform had started its trial operation since late September in the sea area of Dayaowan in Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning province. All the six propulsion systems, dynamic positioning system, unmanned engine room, as well as 11,000 alarm points have passed the test.

With a length of 104.5 meters, a width of 70.5 meters and a height of 105.8 meters, the platform is able to operate in water depths up to 1,500 meters and drill as deep as 9,144 meters. It is so far the world’s most advanced drilling platform.

“This sixth-generation drilling platform is the most complicated product in the field of marine engineering,” said Wang Housheng, engineer of the drilling platform project. “China required technical support and guidance from foreigner experts to build the complicated sixth-generation platform five years ago, but now we can rely on our own technology to deliver it completely to the customers.”

The technical team has improved the installed capacity for the platform by 20 percent via technical innovation while not increasing the cost. The wind-resistance capability of the platform has also been comprehensively enhanced, making it more suitable to conduct drilling operations in the typhoon-prone sea areas.