Petronas FLNG Step Closer to Completion

Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) started lifting of the first topside module for floating liquefied natural gas (PFLNG1) facility at the Quayside of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Okpo, South Korea, on September 22. The topside module lifting marks the near completion of the PFLNG1, which will be the world’s first floating
LNG facility in operation. The first topside module, on which power generation and control functions instruments are to be installed, weighs about 2,000 tonnes, the equivalent to the weight of approximately 100 ordinary cargo containers. A 3,600-ton marine crane was used to conduct the lifting operation by DSME.

There are 20 remaining modules weighing approximately 40,000 tonnes that are to be installed on the hull, and the topside module lifting is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2015. Petronas Vice President and Venture Director of LNG Projects – Domestic, Datuk Abdullah Karim said: “The topside is the heart of this floating LNG facility where pre-treatment and liquefaction process for the gas will be carried out. Therefore, the safe and successful installation of the topside is critical to the delivery of the project.”

Petronas has appointed Technip and DSME as a consortium to jointly develop the PFLNG1 facility with LNG capacity of 1.2 mtpa, 365-metre length, 60-metre width and 33-metre height. Once the construction and installation phases complete in 2015, PFLNG1 will be moored in Kanowit field located 180 kilometres offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.