Crown LNG starts on Kakinada LNG terminal offshore India

Norwegian LNG infrastructure company Crown LNG has initiated the development of an LNG terminal offshore Kakinada, India.

A subsidiary of Crown LNG, Crown LNG India, has signed an agreement with East LNG to finance, build and lease the infrastructure for their offshore LNG receiving terminal at Kakinada.

Crown is also contracted for operations and management of the facility, through the 25-year lease period.

The Kakinada LNG terminal will have an annual re-gasification capacity of 7.2 million metric tonnes per year to support India’s gas initiative and help in ghg emission reduction.

Crown LNG, specialising in LNG infrastructure for both LNG re-gasification and LNG liquefaction, says it focuses on the development of a technical solution that can operate in more severe weather conditions than floating solutions.

Gunnar Knutsen, CEO of Crown LNG AS’, said: “We will build an LNG terminal that will be operational 365 days per year, including during the monsoon season, for 25 years following the completion of the terminal.”

Crown LNG intends to develop the LNG terminal as a gravity-based structure that sits on the seabed approximately eleven kilometres offshore Kakinada.

It is to be able to withstand the harsh weather conditions of the Indian monsoon season.

Jørn Husemoen, chairman of Crown LNG Holding, said the Kakinada LNG project will ensure domestic energy supply and facilitate the energy transition.

Husemoen also underlines that the pipeline infrastructure near the project site is easy to connect to.

Crown LNG expects that the Kakinada project’s EPCIC contractor and key subcontractors will be announced soon, with a final investment decision (FID) expected for the end of 2022.

It is estimated that the LNG terminal will be operational approximately three years after FID.

Crown LNG has also signed a letter of intent to deliver a traditional 5mtpa FSRU to a gas to power project in the United Kingdom.