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China’s first deep-ocean drilling vessel in service

The Meng Xiang, China’s first domestically designed and built deep-ocean drilling vessel with a maximum drilling depth of 11 kilometers, was officially commissioned in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou in November 2024, according to a Xinhua report.

China’s largest scientific research vessel, the Meng Xiang measures 179.8 meters in length and 32.8 meters in width, with a displacement of 42,600 tonnes. It delivers a range of 15,000 nautical miles, a self-supportability for 120 days, and a capacity to accommodate 180 people.

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Photo: Xinhua


The vessel integrates functions such as deep-ocean scientific drilling, oil and gas exploration, and natural gas hydrate investigation and trial extraction. After two rounds of sea trials, its key performance indicators exceeded design expectations, according to Zhang Haibin, chief designer of the Meng Xiang.

The vessel is equipped with a hydraulic lifting rig capable of both oil and gas exploration and core sampling, with a top drive lifting capacity of 907 tonnes. It supports four drilling modes and three coring methods, fulfilling diverse operational needs such as deep-ocean coring and deep-sea resource exploration.

The vessel also features nine advanced laboratories, covering areas such as geology, geochemistry, microbiology, ocean science, and drilling technology. It also includes the world’s first automated shipborne core sample storage system which supports marine research.

Designed to meet the safety standards for super typhoons, it can operate normally in rough sea conditions and is capable of global missions in unrestricted waters.

Traditionally, human activities and scientific exploration have been limited to the Earth’s crust, which averages 15 kilometers in thickness. Beneath the crust lies the mantle, a crucial layer linking the surface to the core. The commission of the Meng Xiang marks an effort to reach or even break through the boundary between the crust and mantle, known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity, or Moho.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), China has now also launched an initiative to develop China’s first 15,000-meter (49,200-foot) ultra-deep intelligent drilling rig. The project is led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in collaboration with multiple universities, research institutions and enterprises.

The world’s deepest oil well currently is Russia’s Z-44 Chayvo well, drilled on the Sakhalin shelf in eastern Russia, at a depth of 15,000 meters. Along with two other deep oilfields in the area, these sites collectively hold an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 480 billion cubic metres of natural gas. (The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia holds the record for true vertical depth, reaching a depth of 12,262 meters (40,230 feet —but this was a scientific research well, not an oil well.)

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