TECHNICAL
OFFSHORE
Floating LNG
Poised for Stellar ($23B) Growth
Despite the present economic woes, the Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) business is underpinned by compelling long-term fundamentals and is poised to become a major growth sector, with forecast expenditure of $23 billion expected over the period to 2016. Announcing the results of, "The World FLNG Market Report 2010-2016," Douglas-Westwood's latest study, at the Commercializing FLNG Conference in Singapore, Steve Robertson said "The last 12 months have been difficult for the sector, however, any delays in project sanctioning have largely been attributed to the project structures and changes in upstream partners rather than any technology gaps. We continue to believe that vertically integrated majors will be best placed to assemble a project from the upstream elements through to liquefaction, transport and regas stages. "In many regions we are seeing that floating regasification units continue to be sanctioned and the various floating liquefaction systems are progressing well through the design and engineering process. South East Asia will be a key area of focus for the sector and it is clear that there are many players evaluating the technology with an intention to deploy. For some remote stranded gas assets it will be the only technically feasible option, for others there are additional benefits to in terms of better flexibility, reduced lead times and even cost savings." Lead author, Lucy Miller, commented, "We have developed a market model built on a project-by-project review of development prospects, with the timing of expenditure phased to reflect likely project structure. This
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model has been developed in consultation with industry experts and also sense-checked to account for external factors such as supply chain constraints. We have prepared forecasts segmented by services such as technology licensing, front end engineering & design, project management & detailed design engineering, construction engineering (field engineering), construction and installation (hook-up and commissioning). "On a regional basis, our view is that Australasia will account for the largest proportion of the $23 billion global Capex forecast, with a 23% share. Africa is the next most significant region, also with a 23% share, or $5.2 billion. North America, despite having the greatest number of FLNG projects � most of which are import terminals � still only accounts for $1.6 billion, or 7% of global Capex. "The split by import/export terminals: import terminals account for 22% of the expenditure during 20102016, albeit this proportion changes significantly over the period. Key service items include construction at around $15.6 billion and detailed design engineering & project management at over $3 billion over the period to 2016."
The Report
Shell Awards FLNG Contracts to Technip, Samsung
Shell Gas & Power Developments BV (Shell) signed a master agreement with a consortium comprising Technip and Samsung for the design, construction and installation of multiple floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) (pictured above) facilities over a period of up to 15 years. Shell and Technip-Samsung also signed a contract for execution of the front end engineering and design (FEED) for Shell's 3.5 million ton per annum (mtpa) FLNG solution. Shell's FLNG solution has the potential to place gas liquefaction facilities directly over offshore gas fields, precluding the need for long distance pipelines and extensive onshore infrastructure. This alternative to traditional onshore LNG plants provides -- according to Shell -- a commercially attractive and environmentally sensitive approach for monetization of offshore gas fields. The broad operating parameters of the Shell design mean it can be redeployed. Shell's standardized "design one � build many" approach allows material repeatability gains to be captured during design and construction phases. The master agreement and the FEED contract were signed in Paris, France, by Jon Chadwick, Executive Vice President Upstream International, and Matthias Bichsel, Director Projects & Technology on behalf of Shell; Thierry Pilenko, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Bernard di Tullio, Chief Operating Officer, on behalf of Technip; and J. W. Kim, Vice Chairman and CEO, and H. Y. Lee, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, on behalf of Samsung.
Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
The World FLNG Market Report 2010-2016 identifies by region and discusses on a country-by-country basis the current and future prospects for floating LNG Liquefaction and Regasification terminals to 2016.
For more information, Email: publications@dw-1.com
(Photo: Courtesy of Shell)