The second phase of a "smart factory" for manufacturing offshore oil and gas extraction equipment started construction on Tuesday in Binhai New Area, north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The project, which belongs to the China National Offshore Oil and Corporation (CNOOC), is part of the country's first intelligent base designed for offshore oil and gas equipment production.

With an area of 18,800 square meters, the new project will include a structural pipeline production line with an annual processing capacity of 22,000 tonnes, realizing automation and intelligence of production and quality inspection.

After completion, the base will be formed by four intelligent production centers consisting of panel production lines, process piping production lines, a structural pipeline production line, and an automated three-dimensional warehouse.

The newly built assembly bays, docks and shipping lanes will enhance the base's assembly capacity and the safety of ship supply operation.

Since it was put into operation in 2022, the base has completed manufacturing of over 10 major offshore oil and gas equipment, and the volume of steel processing has reached 46,000 tonnes, according to the CNOOC.

It added that the digital systems and intelligent production lines has helped increase efficiency of the entire production line by 25 percent and that of final assembly by about 30 percent compared with traditional manufacturing method.