China’s DS Global Offshore has reported that its Huan Qiu 1200 vessel has now completed decommissioning contract work in Thailand, on behalf of operator, Chevron.
The vessel has now returned to Chinese waters for domestic-based work.
“From early spring 2024 to late spring 2025, after more than a year of hard work, the Thailand Chevron oil and gas field subsea pipeline recovery project led by the ship, Huan Qiu 1200, of DS Global Offshore Engineering (Tianjin) Co.,Ltd. has successfully concluded,” it noted in a statement.
“After more than 400 days, with the excellent performance of the DP2 power positioning system, the team successfully recovered more than 60 21-inch cement-coated sea pipes in the deep sea, breaking the industry record and setting a new benchmark for global deep-sea energy development.”
It described the submarine pipeline labyrinth as an “underwater steel forest” spanning multiple kilometres in length.
DS Global Offshore said in its statement that precision technology and solutions had won praise from Chevron for overcoming challenges such as the increased weight of cement coatings and disturbance from underwater currents in the deep-sea environment.
It said the project team adopted the “segmented disassembly and precise lifting scheme, optimising the cutting path through dynamic simulation and using high-precision sensors to adjust the lifting angle in real time, successfully avoiding the risk of pipeline entanglement.”
At the core of the project, it noted, was the vessel’s DP2 power positioning system.
“The system analyses wind speed, ocean currents and ship displacement data in real-time through onboard computers, automatically adjusts the propulsion power, and controls the positioning error of the engineering ship within three metres, even in deep sea and level four sea conditions,” the DS Global Offshore statement noted.
The company added: “The Chevron owner stated: This cooperation fully demonstrates the excellent technical strength and professional competence of the engineering ship team, setting a benchmark for future offshore energy projects.”
Chevron is looking to decommission dozens of offshore platforms and subsea pipelines in Thailand over the coming years.
