This Day, That Year

Item from June 26, 1984, in China Daily: China's first semi-submersible platform for offshore oil drilling, Survey Number Three, was tugged out to sea yesterday for a series of tests before being handed over to its ultimate users. The platform was made by Shanghai Dockyards.

Oil and natural gas resources deep in the oceans have attracted growing global interest in the past few decades, amid the rising demand for fuel.

China, the world's largest energy consumer, has been gearing up its deep-sea exploration. The completion of the country's first deep-sea drilling rig, the Haiyang Shiyou 981, in 2010 showed that it has the technology and equipment to carry out large-scale oil and gas exploration in the field.