Offshore yards in Asia are preparing themselves for Woodside Petroleum’s decision as to which of them will compete for a major contract to provide twin floating production, storage and offloading vessels for the US$15 billion Browse liquefied natural gas project in Australia.

The yards angling to be on Woodside’s bid list are the South Korean trio Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering; the Chinese yards Offshore Oil Engineering Company, Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry and CIMC Raffles; Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine and Malaysia’s Sapura Energy.

The bid list could be finalised at any time, but the invitation to tender is likely to come in late 2019 or early 2020, said sources.

Two of the Chinese contenders — COOEC and CIMC Raffles — have chosen to pair up, while Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry has tied up with US contractor McDermott, said sources, in expectation of being invited to bid.

All of the other yards are hungry for this project too. Sources have said previously the South Koreans may have an edge because of their newbuild FPSO experience.

Woodside, however, has said that Chinese yards are very much in the running for Browse.

The front-end engineering and design work for the FPSOs has not yet started, but US engineering giant KBR is standing by to secure the prized FEED contract , which will bring with it an “ enterprise portfolio project management” function.

Sources said the latter function is essentially optional scope to assist Woodside with managing the engineering procurement and construction packages.

Woodside said in its latest financial results that the Browse joint venture is aligned on being ready to begin FEED work at the end of 2019.

KBR has previously carried out a concept definition study on Browse, while IntecSea Engineering did conceptual work on the two FPSOs.

The two 360-metre-long FPSOs will be newbuild 90,000-tonne vessels with planned throughput capacity of more than 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas.

Another major component of the FPSOs is the internal turret mooring systems. Sources said SBM Offshore’s experience with supplying large turret systems will make it a strong contender for Browse.

The FPSOs are one element of the Browse project — there is also a very large subsea production system plus umbilicals, risers and flowlines.

Well-placed sources said Woodside has selected just two bidding groups for the enormous Browse subsea scope — Technip FMC and the One Subsea/Subsea 7 alliance.

The bid for the subsea scope has not yet been issued.

There is also a giant offshore pipeline component — an 85-kilometre interfield spur line and a 900-kilometre, 42-inch gas export pipeline to the existing North West Shelf LNG facility, which will receive and convert Browse gas into LNG.

The export pipeline will transport dry gas and will navigate subsea features including water depths up to 550 metres, seabed sand waves and undulations that may require pre and/or post-lay corrections, and crossings by other operators, said Woodside.

Perth-based engineer Atteris has previously performed the subsea concept definition engineering for Browse. The FEED contract has not yet been awarded.

Woodside’s US$15 billion gross capital expenditure guidance for the foundation phase of Browse includes $8.1 billion for the FPSOs, $5.1 billion for the subsea equipment and installation, $1.3 billion for drilling and completions, and $0.5 billion for various other elements leading up to a final investment decision in late 2020.

The operator estimates there will be an additional gross $5.5 billion spent on future phases comprising predominantly subsea elements and drilling.

The Browse joint venture and the North West Shelf Venture are still finalising an agreement for the processing of Browse gas through the North West Shelf LNG facility.

The Browse joint venture comprises Woodside on 30.6%, Shell on 27%, BP on 17.33%, Mitsubishi-Mitsui (MiMi) on 14.4% and PetroChina on 10.67%.

The six equal-sharing North West Shelf co-owners are Woodside, Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP and Japan LNG (MiMi).

Weekly

Yards get set for Browse FPSOs D-day