Made-in-China subsea pipeline device heralds change

China has developed its own subsea pipeline inspection device, ending foreign companies' dominance in this field, said the machine's designers.

"We are the first in China to successfully develop this kind of device, for which our offshore oil industry had waited more than 20 years. Now we can proudly announce that China can inspect its subsea pipelines on its own," said Zhou Ming, director of the Beijing Huahang Radio Measurement Institute that developed the equipment.

Such a device uses magnetic flux leakage method to detect corrosion and pitting in pipelines and is used to inspect about 70 percent of existing pipelines in the world.