ABS, the former American Bureau of Shipping, has awarded approval in principle to Bumi Armada for its innovative floating liquefied natural gas solution.
The Malaysian floater specialist hailed its FLNG infrastructure solution as one which brings LNG to the market “in a fast-track, cost-effective, flexible and reliable manner”.
Bumi Armada is collaborating with Indonesia’s Pertamina International Shipping and Indonesian contractor Davenergy Mulia Perkasa to record key principles to develop and commercialise LNG from the Madura gas field and its surrounding fields offshore Indonesia.
The novel FLNG concept incorporates a newly built barge-based liquefaction unit using existing LNG carriers for storage. Bumi Armada has developed the barge-based liquefaction unit for a standardised LNG design capacity based on having a modularised and repeatable compact design.
The contractor said this concept allows for a phased approach to deploy parallel liquefaction units to match any required capacity for the monetisation of gas, eliminating the need for large and costly onshore infrastructure. Meanwhile, reusing LNG carriers is expected to provide a safe and quality option for storage.
Bumi Armada believes this streamlined approach will yield substantial time and cost savings and that this FLNG concept presents a promising solution to meeting the growing demand for cleaner, gas-based energy with a lower carbon footprint.
“We are committed to bringing innovative and sustainable solutions that can accelerate the delivery of cleaner energy,” Bumi Armada chief executive Gary Christenson said.
“This technology is a testament to our strong commitment towards providing the best solutions that unlock the pathway to achieve net zero by 2050, which is in Bumi Armada’s decarbonisation agenda.”
Bumi Armada added that its net-zero commitment is demonstrated by the company’s ownership and operation of the only FLNG terminal in Malta ensuring smooth delivery of natural gas to the nation as well as its partnership in Karapan Armada Sterling 3 for the Madura BD field, which is the only floating production, storage and offloading vessel that uses an amine recovery system to extract hydrogen sulphide from the produced gas which is similar to the amine system used for many of the carbon dioxide capture-recovery systems worldwide.
“We are pleased to support Bumi Armada in their ongoing efforts to offer safe and reliable LNG storage solutions. Our recent AIP for their innovative FLNG concept is a testament to our continuing collaboration with Bumi Armada and we look forward to supporting further development of this concept,” ABS senior vice president for global offshore Miguel Hernandez said.
