Petronas hires Meggitt to deliver heat exchangers for PFLNG 2

Meggitt PLC, an international company specialising in high performance components and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence and energy markets has announced that its Heatric heat exchanger business has been awarded a contract by JGC Corporation for the supply of printed circuit heat exchangers for the PETRONAS’ second floating Liquefied Natural Gas facility (PFLNG 2).

JGC leads a consortium for the development of the PFLNG 2 which will be located in gas fields off the Malaysian coast, with a production capacity of 1.5 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas.

Heat exchangers are a key technology employed in offshore gas processing. It combines diffusion-bonding with precision-engineered, chemically-etched flow plates, producing compact, lightweight PCHEs favoured by offshore platforms and vessels where space and weight is at a premium.

As the PCHEs weigh up to 85% less than conventional technology, this reduces the cost of topside super-structure support. The high integrity, seamless weld and joint-free structure of Heatric’s PCHEs means that they are not susceptible to vibration, highly resistant to fire, cannot fail catastrophically and require minimal over-pressure relief systems.

The PCHEs installed on the topsides of the PFLNG 2 facility include the heat exchangers for the liquefaction process, the most critical part of the LNG plant.

The contract follows last year’s award valued at over $100 million for PCHEs for gas processing applications on Petrobras’ floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Lula and Guará Pre-Salt fields in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil; and another to supply PCHEs for the Shell Prelude Floating LNG Project, the world’s biggest floating LNG facility. Heatric was selected for this project after more than 10 years’ successful operation of PCHEs in a range of onshore LNG facilities for Shell and other customers.

Stephen Young, Meggitt’s Chief Executive commented: “Heatric is an established supplier to JGC, which has been responsible for constructing about 30% of LNG plants worldwide, including seven new projects in Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Russia, and Canada.

“We are delighted that Heatric continues as JGC’s heat exchanger partner as it moves offshore to meet the requirements of ground-breaking FLNG projects such as Malaysia’s PETRONAS’ PFLNG 1 project, the world’s first floating LNG plant located in gas fields more than 1,000 metres beneath the ocean’s surface.”