Himile Group, which is based in Gaomi, Shandong province, has made great achievements in developing subsea oil production equipment and related processing equipment, local media reported.

At its plant, engineers are working on a drilling riser that is used in deep-sea oil and gas exploration at depths of 3,000 meters.

Himile Group in Gaomi, Shandong province [Photo/dzwww.com]

"The drilling riser is a key piece of equipment that is extremely difficult to design and manufacture," said Tang Lixing, general manager of Himile Group.

"A riser more than 15 meters long must pass a pressure test of more than 150 megapascals. It is like an area the size of your fingernail is subjected to 1.5 tons of pressure."

Previously, only a handful of European and American multinationals could manufacture such deep-sea risers, which were expensive and often limited in China. In order to break this monopoly on the core technology, Himile Group began to set up a research and development team in 2015. After thousands of tests, they finally overcame this problem, said Tang.

The subsea drilling riser developed by Himile Group [Photo/dzwww.com]

The deepsea drilling riser has enhanced the company's popularity in the deepwater equipment industry and also laid a foundation for the company's development of other deepsea products in the future.

Now, the offshore oil and gas department of Himile Group has 1,200 employees, as well as has an annual output value of more than 1 billion yuan ($156.7 million). Nearly 90 percent of its products are exported to more than 40 countries and regions in Europe, America, Asia, as well as Australia.