China's Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) has announced the ahead-of-schedule completion of the first phase of subsea pipeline installation for the Ruya EPCI 9 project in Qatar. This project is a key part of the broader Ruya development, which constitutes the third phase for the Al-Shaheen field, operated by North Oil Company, a joint venture between QatarEnergy and TotalEnergies.

Project Significance and Scope

The Ruya EPCI 9 project represents the largest subsea pipeline-laying contract by value that COOEC has secured in the Middle East. The full workscope is a comprehensive engineering, procurement, and construction contract managed by COOEC, with a planned 64-month execution window. It involves laying 41 subsea pipelines and nine subsea composite cables.

First Phase Completion Details

The successfully completed first phase involved the installation of 28 subsea pipelines. These pipelines spanned a total of 137.88 kilometres and included 10 different pipeline sizes, with a maximum diameter of 26 inches. COOEC reported that this phase was finished ahead of schedule with zero safety incidents and zero quality defects.

Vessel and Strategic Importance

The work was executed by the Hai Yang Shi You 201, China's first domestically designed and built 3,000-metre deepwater pipelay crane vessel. The vessel departed China in May of the previous year for its first assignment outside Chinese waters. In Qatar, it is supporting two major projects: the Ruya EPCI 9 project for North Oil Company and the ISND5-2 project for QatarEnergy. COOEC described this milestone as a breakthrough, marking the large-scale application of China's full-chain high-end offshore EPCI capabilities in a core global energy-producing region.