Petronas’s floating LNG facility to be completed by late 2015

PETALING JAYA: Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) floating liquefied natural gas (PFLNG 1) facility – the first in the world – being constructed at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Okpo, South Korea, is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.
In a press statement yesterday, Petronas said PFLNG1, also dubbed PFLNG Satu, will be moored in Malaysia's Kanowit gas field, 180km offshore Sarawak, set to produce 1.2 million tonnes of LNG every year.
"It will play a significant role in Petronas's efforts to unlock the gas reserves in Malaysia's remote and stranded fields currently deemed uneconomical to develop and evacuate and will help meet the growing demand for gas," it said.
PFLNG 1 is also expected to change the landscape of the LNG business where the liquefaction, production, storage and offloading processes of LNG, previously only possible at onshore plants, will now be able to be carried out hundreds of kilometres away from land and closer to the offshore gas fields.
Petronas vice-president and venture director of LNG projects (domestic), gas & power business Datuk Abdullah Karim said the state-owned oil firm is currently working closely with its strategic partners, Technip and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, to ensure the project is delivered within cost and on schedule.
Petronas last Saturday launched the 365-metre-long hull of PFLNG 1, as the hull floated out at a dock and was anchored at a quayside of DSME shipyard where the facility is being constructed.