Thailand’s national upstream company PTTEP is closing in on the award of a front-end engineering and design contract for its significant Lang Lebah gas project offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.

Market sources said that an award of the offshore FEED contract is close, with TechnipFMC and Ranhill Worley the frontrunners for the job.

Aker Solutions, MMC Oil & Gas, McDermott, RNZ Petrofac and Wood are said to be among the other contenders, while it is understood TechnipFMC was engaged in the pre-FEED work

There are also market expectations that a second significant standalone project could be unveiled this year based on the discoveries that PTTEP has made in the blocks surrounding Lang Lebah.