Petronas awards feed contracts for Sabah’s nearshore LNG project

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has awarded two Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contracts to JGC Corporation-Samsung Heavy Industries consortium and to SAIPEM Spa.

The move is part of an international dual FEED design competition for a nearshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Sabah, Petronas said in a statement yesterday.

The project, with a minimum capacity of 2.0 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), is the first of its kind in Malaysia.

“The FEED design competition is expected to take place over the course of 10 months with the Final Investment Decision (FID) planned for end-2022.

“Subject to FID, the winning FEED contractor will be rolled over to the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning phase.

“The nearshore LNG plant is expected to be ready for start up by end of 2026,” it said.

The design and construction of the nearshore plant are expected to be simpler, and upon completion, has the potential for improved production uptime as it will be located within a protected bay area, compared to an offshore floating LNG facility in the open seas.

Petronas executive vicepresident and chief executive officer of Gas and New Energy, Adnan Zainal Abidin said the group 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 monetise gas resources in an optimised and environmentally-friendly manner,” he said.

Upon completion, the nearshore LNG plant will increase Petronas’ LNG production from floating LNG facilities from 2.7 MTPA to 4.7 MTPA. — Bernama