Petronas in another ‘first’ within FLNG industry

After having been the first company in the world to build and deploy an FLNG unit to an offshore location Petronas is reportedly set to become the first to actually send away an LNG cargo from an FLNG unit.

The floating production unit named Satu, has been deployed at the Kanowit field offshore Malaysia in May last year, and it achieved first gas in November 2016.

It produced first LNG in December, and according to a report by Reuters on Thursday, it is now expected to offload its first LNG cargo, making the unit break another “world’s first” FLNG milestone.

Citing industry sources, Reuters said on Thursday the Satu FLNG unit was loading up the tanker Seri Camellia which would leave „within the next day or two“ to South Korea.

The company said that, with a processing capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), operating at water depths between 70 meters to 200 meters deep, PFLNG SATU is expected to lift its first cargo and achieve commercial operations in the first quarter of 2017.

While the Floating LNG has been studied for years, it was not until recently that firm steps were made towards the concrete development. Shell was the first company to start with an FLNG development, aiming to bring online its giant prelude gas field offshore W. Australia.

The final investment decision for the project was made in 2011, and, according to LNG World News, the Prelude could start producing in 2017. The Prelude FLNG facility will be 488 meters long, 74 meters wide and along with its contents, will weigh around 600,000 tonnes. It will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world.

Apart from Petronas, who now has an operational FLNG unit, other players in the advanced stages of FLNG development are Eni, with its gas fields in Mozambique, and Ophir developing a gas field offshore Equatorial Guinea.

Worth noting ExxonMobil might develop its Scarborough field, offshore Australia through an FLNG solution. Woodside, ExxonMobil’s new partner in the Scarborough field, recently said that the final investment decision for the field could be expected by 2020.

Offshore Energy Today Staff