China ships 24 sets of ultra-deepwater suction anchors to Brazil

China has shipped 24 sets of domestically-developed ultra-deepwater suction anchors to Brazil, making a major step in the country's offshore engineering capability, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) said on Sunday.

As one of China's deepest offshore oil and gas equipment delivered abroad, the suction anchors, designed for operations at depths of 2,000 meters, departed from Zhuhai, a city in south China's Guangdong Province. The shipment signals growing international recognition of Chinese-made deep-sea technology

Suction anchors are widely used in deepwater oil and gas field mooring systems, as they are easy to install, reusable, and have a large load capacity.

As the deepwater oil and gas exploration has paced up, China has made significant progress in building a modern industrial chain for deepwater equipment, including breakthroughs in underwater well production systems and mooring systems.

"Over years' development, we've developed a full suite of equipment, including subsea trees, central manifolds, control modules and pipeline connectors, and formed an industrial chain from the product design, assembly, testing, to application. Most key components are now domestically produced," said Li Wei, chief engineer at CNOOC's special equipment company.

In recent years, China has launched several major deepwater oil and gas equipment such as "Deep Sea No. 1," "Haiji-2" and "Haikui No. 1," and delivered world-class equipment to Brazil's Petrobras, including the P67 and P70 floating production storage and offloadings (FPSOs).

China ships 24 sets of ultra-deepwater suction anchors to Brazil

Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday that the country is at a critical stage and must achieve national unity, emphasizing that maintaining internal cohesion is of utmost importance.

In a televised address, Rodriguez called on the public to continue trusting the government under the current highly complex political circumstances.

Her statement comes in the wake of a January 3 military operation conducted by the United States, during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were taken into custody and flown out of the country.

The operation resulted in at least 100 fatalities.

Rodriguez, who was sworn in as acting president two days later on January 5, framed her appeal for unity against this backdrop of external intervention.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Freddy Nanez denounced the U.S. actions as a "war crime of the 21st century" when speaking at an international cultural event on Sunday.

Nanez condemned not only the January 3 airstrikes but also the associated cyber and electromagnetic attacks.

He accused the United States of violating international law through the forced removal of President Maduro and his wife, while attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, represent a flagrant breach of humanitarian norms.

He reiterated that the stigmatization and military attacks against Venezuela are driven by economic interests, particularly the desire to control its abundant natural resources.

Venezuelan acting president calls for national unity amid complex situation