PHOTO: This is the world’s first converted FLNG vessel

Singapore’s builder of offshore drilling rigs and vessels, Keppel, has shared a photo of the completed Hilli Episeyo FLNG vessel.

Converted from a large LNG carrier, -the Hilli Episeyo – the world’s first converted FLNG vessel – was delivered to Golar earlier in October, and has left Singapore ten days ago.

According to the FLNG vessel’s AIS, the 293 meters long vessel is now sailing through the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar, with the final location being Cameroon.

The vessel is expected to arrive in Cameroon on November 22, after which it will be moored and connected to an offshore gas field, from which it will take gas and convert it to LNG for exports, making it the first operational FLNG unit in Africa.

The Hilli Episeyo, unit will be put in operation offshore Kribi, Cameroon for Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures and Perenco Cameroon.

Hilli Episeyo was converted from the 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 m3. It was designed for a liquefaction capacity of about 2.4 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

The vessel recently became part of the first commercial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunker transfer in Singapore. Namely, FueLNG, a joint venture between Keppel and Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd (Shell), completed truck-to-ship bunkering for the FLNG vessel.

Worth noting, Keppel, known for its offshore rig building skills, has in the past few years witnessed a drop in drilling rig orders due to the oversupply in the market. It has even been forced do defer deliveries of existing rig orders, as the rig owners simply don’t have the clients to charter them out to.

Thus, the Keppel is increasingly looking to diversify its offer, and LNG vessels are a part of that diversification.

In the year to date, by September 30, Keppel’s Offshore & Marine division has secured new contracts of about S$1 billion, mainly for newbuild dredgers and LNG-related vessels, as well as the conversion of Floating Production Storage Offloading units.

Offshore Energy Today Staff