Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas has awarded two Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contracts to a JGC Corporation-Samsung Heavy Industries consortium and to Saipem as part of an international dual FEED design competition for a nearshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Sabah.
The project, with a minimum capacity of 2.0 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) is a first of its kind in Malaysia, Petronas said.
The FEED design competition is expected to take place over the course of 10 months with the Final Investment Decision (FID) planned for end of 2022.
Subject to FID, the winning FEED contractor will be rolled over to the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) phase. The nearshore LNG plant is planned to be Ready for Start-up (RFSU) by end of 2026.
The design and construction of the nearshore plant is expected to be simpler and upon completion, has the potential for improved production uptime as it will be located within a protected bay area as compared to an offshore floating LNG facility in the open seas.
Petronas Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Gas and New Energy Adnan Zainal Abidin said, “PETRONAS continues to provide greater access to cleaner energy sources such as natural gas. The development of Sabah’s first nearshore LNG plant reflects our technological expertise where we continue to innovate modern solutions to monetize gas resources in an optimized and environmentally-friendly manner.”
Upon completion, the nearshore LNG plant will increase Petronas’ LNG production from floating LNG facilities from 2.7 MTPA to 4.7 MTPA. Currently, Petronas operates two floating LNG facilities, the PFLNG SATU and PFLNG DUA, at the Kebabangan and Rotan offshore gas fields respectively.