In the race: FLex LNG vice president for business development Wouter Pastoor speaks at the Gastech 2009 conference
Players push towards FLNG first
The world’s first floating liquefaction plant could be in operation within three years although the technology’s proponents admit there are still technical, commercial and other challenges to be overcome.
Operators such as ConocoPhillips and Shell and a host of contractors including Flex LNG, SBM, KBR, MISC and Samsung Heavy Industries have already invested their time and funds in pushing ahead with FLNG.
Norway’s Flex LNG is building four FLNG vessels at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje Island yard.
The first vessel is being developed for Progress LNG, offshore Nigeria. A commercial model has been drawn up for this project, for which Mitsubishi of Japan is the gas offtaker, Flex vice president business development Wouter Pastoor told the Gastech 2009 conference.
However, a question mark hangs over the timing of this project.
Progress LNG had been targeting production start-up in the second half of 2011 but this might not now be achievable as Flex and Mitsubishi late last year delayed their final investment decision.
Rift Oil’s Douglas and Puk Puk gas fields development in Papua New Guinea is another candidate for Flex’s FLNG vessels and Mitsubishi is also in the frame as the gas offtaker for this project.
Flex LNG’s FLNG vessels are designed to produce a maximum of 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG but this does not rule them out for fields with reserves of more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Pastoor said the company has already been approached by operators considering using two of its vessels to exploit such larger fields as a viable alternative to a single bigger floating liquefaction barge.
Flex believes that utilising two of its FLNG vessels is a commercially attractive proposition compared to a larger barge solution such as that developed by US operator ConocoPhillips.
Liquid petroleum gas floating production, storage and offloading vessels – such as the one used on its Belanak field off Indonesia, are the closest the industry has today to a FLNG unit in operation, said ConocoPhillips director of LNG technology and licensing Michael Wilkes.
Its FLNG vessel has a base design of 5.3 million tpa of LNG and uses the company’s optimised cascade liquefaction technology, which is already operating in 16 onshore locations worldwide.
Wilkes told the conference that the FLNG development work had benefitted from the company’s experience with the Liberdade floating storage and offloading vessel on its Bayu Undan project.
Liberdade, the world’s first combined condensate and LPG FSO, is capable of both side-by-side and tandem loading.
ConocoPhillips developed its FLNG solution together with Bechtel, Samsung, J Ray McDermott, Oil & Gas Solutions and Det Norske Veritas.