COSCO Shipping Sets Semi-Sub Heavy Lift Record

COSCO shipping claims a new record for the heaviest tonnage and largest volume of a single piece of cargo carried.

The record came with the smooth departure of the deepwater drilling platform, Deep Blue Exploration, transiting from Singapore to China on the 80,000-ton semi-submersible ship Xin Yaohua operated by COSCO Shipping Special Transport.

CNOOC's Deep Blue Exploration platform is the world's first drilling platform independently designed and built by in China to obtain DNV’s smart certification. The platform is 111.5 meters (366 feet) long, 88.5 meters (290 feet) wide, 109 meters (338 feet) high, and weighs 35,500 tons. Its maximum operating water depth is 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), and the maximum drilling depth is 9,144 meters (30,000 feet).

It took 10 hours from the dive of the semi-sub to the successful positioning of the rig.