LNG

Woodside Energy, the key supplier of LNG to North Asia from two operated plants in Western Australia, has shrugged off the rejection at its annual meeting in Perth of a non-binding vote on its climate change policies as several politically-motivated pension funds and advocacy groups voted against it as not going far enough.

Saipem, the Italian subsea company with contracts for LNG project, pipeline natural and oil worldwide reported a more than 40 rise in earnings as the current backlog was almost €30 billion ($32Bln) with over €2Bln in new contracts.

Seatrium of Singapore, the shipyard engineering company, with continued project successes in oil and LNG with many projects to work on through 2025 has signed an accord with Shell Global Solutions to explore and strengthen collaboration opportunities in Floating Production Systems through leveraging their engineering capabilities and technologies.

Seatrium, formerly called Sembcorp Marine Ltd and renamed as Seatrium following its merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ethe Shell unit focusing on driving project standardisation and replication while seeking to promote best practices in the design of floating systems.

The Singaporean company noted that Seatrium and Shell had worked together on various projects over the years, including the recently-announced Sparta floating production unit (FPU), which is conceived as a replicable project to leverage the Group’s topsides single-lift integration methodology, following the
fabrication of Vito and Whale FPU newbuilds in 2021 and 2023 respectively.

Collaboration

“We are pleased to deepen our collaboration with Shell, leveraging both parties’ competencies and technologies in past Floating Production Systems projects,” explained William Gu, Executive Vice President of Seatrium Oil & Gas (International).

“We look forward to continuing working with Shell to mutually learn and develop best-in-class project management practices to achieve operational efficiency in future floater projects, benefitting both parties,” Gu stated.

Seatrium also said in April 2024 that the its shipyard engineering activities would include more LNG project successes.

The company as secured a series of major contracts with an aggregate value of S$350 million (US$259M), to be completed by the end 2025, reinforcing its reputation as a market leader in vessel repairs, upgrades and conversions.

Seatrium, formerly called Sembcorp Marine Ltd and renamed as Seatrium following its merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine, is moving forward in the sector after big LNG delivery highlights in 2023.

These included the successful delivery in November 2023 of the Greek floating storage and regasification unit, the “FSRU Alexandroupolis”, now deployed offshore northeast Greece as part of a Balkans LNG supply hub. 

Conversions

The backlog of FSRU conversions involves three LNG Carriers (LNGC) being converted to FSRUs for Turkish company Karpowership, with an option for a fourth project.

Seatrium also in November last year handed over the LNG production unit for the BP-led FLNG project offshore Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa and also involving Dallas-based US company Kosmos Energy.

The group’s businesses include oil & gas newbuilds and conversions, offshore renewables, repairs & upgrades, and new energies, to advance the global energy transition from its 60 years of experience in the offshore industry.

Seatrium operates shipyards and engineering and technology centres in 12 countries including Brazil, China, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and the UK and the US as well as Singapore.

Kosmos Energy, a shareholder in the floating liquefied natural gas projects offshore Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa and other regional oil and gas ventures in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a previous loss and reported good progress on the FLNG development alongside UK major BP and advances in the additional Yakaar-Teranga LNG proposal.

Italian major Eni said it had begun to introduce feed gas into the “Tango FLNG” floating production plant ahead of the shipping of the first cargo in a project located offshore the Republic of Congo in West Africa.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the Northwest Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, has received a boost for one of its main overseas ventures, the Sangomar project offshore Senegal in West Africa, with the sail-away from Singapore of the “Léopold Sédar Senghor” floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility.

French major TotalEnergies, a shareholder in the Angola LNG export plant, has finalized the sale for $400 million to a unit of Malaysian energy company Petronas of a stake in Block 20 in the Kwanza Basin offshore the Angolan coast.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, is having to undertake remedial work and a cost review of its biggest overseas project, the Sangomar Field Development offshore Senegal in West Africa, and has pushed back the start-up because of work to be undertaken in Singapore on the production facility.

Belgian shipping company Exmar has reported on the progress of the liquefied natural gas barge for regasification deployed at Eemshaven in the Netherlands and advances made in the floating LNG production venture in the Republic of Congo.

Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas major and LNG market player, has won a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom against claims over on oil spill in Nigeria where Shell is still a shareholder in Nigerian oil and gas assets and the LNG plant.