Petronas FLNG hull launched in South Korea

PETRONAS has launched the hull of its first floating liquefied natural gas (PFLNG 1) facility at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Okpo, South Korea. The facility, scheduled to be completed in Quarter 4 of 2015, will be the world’s first floating LNG facility in operation.

The launch, which took place on 5 April 2014, saw the 365-metre-long hull – equivalent to three NFL football fields in length – float out at a dock and launched to anchor at a quayside of DSME shipyard where the facility is being constructed. This phase marks another milestone in the development of the facility and signifies the near-completion of hull construction works, less than 10 months since the cutting of the first steel in June 2013.

PETRONAS’ Vice-President and Venture Director of LNG Projects (Domestic), Gas & Power Business Datuk Abdullah Karim said, “It is an impressive achievement that we launch the hull within a short time frame following the keel laying process that began on 6 January 2014. In addition, the project has also achieved more than 5.5 million total safe man-hours since the project commenced in March 2012 with no occurrence of loss time incidents at the project site.”

“We look forward for the project team to continue driving this momentum further to achieve our committed milestones, in line with our plans and expectations.

“PETRONAS is currently working closely with its strategic partners, Technip and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering to ensure that the project is delivered safely, in accordance to project specification and quality, within cost and on schedule,” he added.

The PFLNG1 vessel, also known as PFLNG SATU, will be moored in Malaysia’s Kanowit gas field, 180 kilometres offshore Sarawak and will produce 1.2 million tonnes of LNG per year. It will play a significant role in PETRONAS’ 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.

The floating LNG facility is 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.The facility can also be the solution for early monetisation and more agile LNG production.

Present at the launch were PETRONAS’ President and Group CEO Tan Sri Dato’ Shamsul Azhar Abbas; DSME’s President & CEO Mr. Jaeho Ko; Technip’s Chairman & Senior Vice-President of Malaysia & Brunei Syed Feizal Syed Mohammad; PETRONAS’ Executive Vice-President, Upstream, Dato’ Wee Yiaw Hin; PETRONAS’ Vice-President of Technology & Engineering, Dr. Colin Wong Hee Huing, other senior executives from the respective companies and project team members.