Malaysian state energy giant Petronas has given the job of building its third multi-billion floating LNG (FLNG) production unit ZFLNG to a consortium of South Korean shipbuilding Samsung Heavy Industries and engineering company JGC Holdings.
TradeWinds has learned the pair pipped competing bidders Saipem and Wison Offshore & Marine to the post in a decision made this week.
Sources priced the nearshore ZFLNG project at around $3bn.
The 2-million tonnes per annum barge-based unit — dubbed ZFLNG — will be built at SHI, which constructed Petronas’s second FLNG unit — the 1.6-mtpa PFLNG Dua (built 2020), with JCG handling the topsides for the floater.
The new unit will be fitted with membrane-type tanks.
It is due to be in operation in 2026.
Petronas originally tendered for the FLNG unit in mid-2021 with a raft of shipbuilders and engineering contractors teaming up to bid for the work.
The two consortia were shortlisted to undertake front-end engineering and design (FEED) work.
The award comes as a raft of FLNG developers including Eni, ExxonMobil, Golar LNG and Delfin Midstream compete for yard berth space for the planned and upcoming projects.
FLNG units can typically soak up the larger dock space at shipyards for longer periods of time because of the complexity of their construction.
Under its plans, ZFLNG will be moored to an existing jetty in Sipitang Oil & Gas Industrial Park in Sabah, East Malaysia. The jetty will be extended to accommodate the floater.
This connects to Petronas Chemicals Fertiliser's Sabah facility. There are also plans for tie-ins for a virtual pipeline system, LNG bunkering and onshore and subsea feed gas pipelines.
Petronas was first off the mark with FLNG pulling off a world first in April 2017 by exporting a first cargo from its 1.2-mtpa LNG floater PFLNG Satu (built 2016), which was built by DSME and Technip.
The unit was initially deployed off Sarawak state, to the southwest of Sabah, on the main gas field linked to Petronas’ Bintulu LNG plant.
But in 2019 the unit was to another gasfield.
Petronas put PFLNG Dua into operation in March 2021 using the unit to monetise the Rotan gasfield, 140 km off Kota Kinabalu in east Malaysia and in the process becoming the first company to produce LNG from two floaters.
