KUALA LUMPUR (JUNE 5): Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has awarded a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) for its first commercial floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in Malaysia to a consortium of companies.
The contract was signed today between its wholly owned subsidiary Petronas Floating LNG 1 (L) Ltd and a consortium comprising Technip France S.A., Technip Geoproduction (M) Sdn Bhd and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd.
In a statement Tuesday, Petronas said the FLNG facility would be located about 180 kilometers off the coast of Bintulu, Sarawak and was expected to be ready for by the end of 2015.
It said the facility was capable of producing up to 1.2 million tonnes of LNG per year and was expected to boost Malaysia’s total LNG production capacity from 25.7 million tonnes per year to 26.9 million tonnes per year.
“Once operational, the facility is expected to change the landscape of the LNG business where the liquefaction, production and offloading processes of LNG, previously only possible at onshore plants are now able to be carried out hundreds of kilometres away from land and closer to offshore gas sources”, it said.
“The facility is expected to play a significant role in the efforts to unlock the gas reserves in Malaysia’s remote and stranded fields currently deemed uneconomical to develop and evacuate,” said the national oil company.
At the singing of the agreement on Tuesday, Petronas was represented by its executive vice president (gas & power dusiness) Datuk Anuar Ahmad, while executive vice president of Technip Group Philippe Barril, chief executive officer of Technip Geoproduction Edgar Pushparatnam, and senior vice president of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Wan Soo Ryu signed on behalf of their respective companies.