LNG

Oct 31 (LNGJ) - Air Products has been contracted by Malaysian energy company Petronas to provide main cryogenic heat-exchanger (MCHE) technology as part of an upgrade of the Bintulu LNG liquefaction and export plant in Sarawak, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The US company said replacements were part of a program being implemented to “extend the life and continue the superior performance and high reliability” of the MLNG Dua LNG facility in Bintulu.

   Air Products, whose headquarters are in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said that this would be the second and third MCHE replacements provided by the company at this facility for the original units completed almost three decades ago. “Air Products is honored that our equipment’s reliability, performance and longevity have led our valued customer to remain with our leading technology yet again,” said Samir J. Serhan, Chief Operating Officer of Air Products. The company's LNG heat exchangers currently operate in over 100 LNG Trains in 20 countries around the world.

McDermott International, the US energy and liquefied natural gas project engineering company, has reached support agreements with more than 75 percent of secured letter of credit facility providers, funded debt creditors and equity holders stemming from its several years of debt woes.

Three leading liquefied natural gas market participants, Petronas of Malaysia, Mitsui & Co and Japan and French TotalEnergies have signed an agreement to develop a carbon-capture and storage (CCS) project in Southeast Asia as the region tries to keep pace with Europe, the US and Australian on such ventures.

The three partners said they would evaluate several carbon-dioxide storage sites in the Malay Basin, including both saline aquifers and depleted offshore fields.

“This partnership aims to develop a CO2 merchant storage service to decarbonize industrial customers in Asia,” they stated.

TotalEnergies is the most active among the three on carbon joint ventures and is already developing storage capacity of 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year by 2030 through significant industrial projects such as Northern Lights in Norway and Aramis in the Netherlands.

Existing technologies

Toru Matsui, a Senior Executive Managing Officer at Mitsui, said CCS is based on existing technologies and can be seen as an affordable solution to decarbonize the hard-to-abate emitters.

“Mitsui will utilize its expertise in the oil and gas upstream activities and extensive business networks to jointly work with Petronas and TotalEnergies to develop a CCS value chain project in Malaysia,” Matsui stated.

“In Asia, where countries such as South Korea and Japan are aiming to cut their emissions the development of a CCS value chain for hard-to-abate industrial emissions will require a specific regulatory framework and significant investment,” the companies noted.

Through this agreement, the partner said they would study several potential storage sites, determine the best technical means to deliver CO2 to Malaysia from industrial clusters in the region and develop the most appropriate business framework for commercialization of a carbon storage service in Malaysia.

“Petronas is proud to collaborate with forward-looking partners such as TotalEnergies and Mitsui in developing solutions through CCS to move us closer towards a lower-carbon future,” said Tengku Muhammad Taufik, President and Group Chief Executive of Petronas.

“The strategic partnership demonstrates Petronas’ commitment to position Malaysia as a regional CCS hub to capture opportunities in the energy transition with a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our operations to continue delivering the energy needs of today,” he added.

TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said the company was pleased to join forces with Petronas and Mitsui on the carbon storage hub project in Malaysia to support decarbonization in Asia.

“We will bring to the partnership our strong CCS expertise, anchored in Europe with a first integrated project in Norway due to start next year and several other projects,” Pouyanné added.

Air Products, the leading industrial gases company and LNG equipment-maker, said it planned to build new gas plants and expand pipelines in the northwest Malaysian state of Penang.

Sept 5 (LNGJ) - Energy major Shell said its subsidiary in Malaysia, Sarawak Shell Berhad, had taken a final investment decision with national oil and gas company Petronas to develop the Rosmari-Marjoram natural gas project. The Rosmari-Marjoram fields are located 220 kilometres (137 miles) off the coast of Bintulu where the Petronas LNG export plant is located.

   The project is designed to produce 800 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from 2026. “The Rosmari-Marjoram development is one of the strategic projects to ensure a sustained gas supply to the Petronas LNG complex,” said Shell.

The leading Asian LNG exporting nations, Malaysia and Indonesia, are set to see their state-backed energy companies Petronas and Pertamina, removed from US investment bank JPMorgan’s self-appointed policing of what are called Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.

First Gen Corp., the largest provider of gas-fired power in the Philippines, has chosen Australia-based McConnell Dowell as its engineering contractor for an interim floating import terminal at Batangas City to help guarantee the Asian nation's energy security as a major domestic gas field depletes.

The nations of Malaysia and Indonesia, the largest Asian liquefied natural gas exporters, are also increasing their own domestic LNG deliveries on growing demand requirements and will indirectly help to balance the over-supplied global market.

Malaysian Energy company Petronas has announced the launch of its LNG delivery service by truck for off-grid small-scale customers across Peninsular Malaysia from the regasification terminal at Pengerang in the state of Johor.

“Petronas provides industries in Peninsular Malaysia that are not connected to the natural gas infrastructure with an option to switch to gas as an alternative form of cleaner energy,” said the company.

As part of the pilot phase, Petronas completed its first delivery of LNG to a tyre manufacturing plant for the company, Continental Tyre Alor Setar Malaysia.

“The solution forms a part of Petronas’s commitment to environmental sustainability and to drive the growth of natural gas usage in Malaysia,” said Adnan Zainal Abidin, a Petronas Executive Vice President and Chief Executive of the company’s Gas and New Energy division.

He said that by establishing the necessary infrastructure the national oil and gas company offers customers a cleaner and competitive form of energy for power.

“We achieve this by embracing our customers pain-points in our strategies which results in strong collaborations across Petronas’s value chain to provide an integrated solution,” he explained.

“Ultimately, we provide a one-stop centre for off-grid customers, covering supply, loading facilities and logistic services to ensure that their cleaner energy needs are met,” he added.

“The launch of our latest solution is a testament to how Petronas delivers customer-centric solutions through our focus on innovation,” stated Adnan.

Along with other global energy companies, Petronas recently posted a loss due to lower prices and a curtailment of economic activity because of Covid-19.

Petronas reported a first-half loss of 16.5Bln Malaysian ringgit ($3.97Bln) and a 23 percent year-on-year reduction in revenue to 93.6Bln ringgit ($22.5 billion) on the back of lower average realised prices and a drop in sales volumes for processed gas and LNG.

The company said that it was looking at ways of cutting costs, including wage cuts to avoid reducing its number of employees.

Petronas President and Chief Executive Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz, said the company was considering pay cuts for its more than 47,000 employees in the light of the continued challenging market conditions.

Sept 7 (LNG) - Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company and leading Asian LNG exporter, said that there would be no reduction in the number of employees, though the group would trim capital costs and may cut pay to strengthen its resiliency after big losses. Petronas posted a first-half loss of 16.5Bln Malaysian ringgit ($3.97Bln) and a 23 percent year-on-year reduction in revenue to 93.6Bln ringgit ($22.5 billion) on the back of lower average realised prices and a drop in sales volumes for processed gas and LNG.

   Petronas President and Chief Executive Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz, said the company was considering pay cuts for its more than 47,000 employees in the light of the continued challenging market conditions. “The final deliberations are ongoing. Any decision on the matter will be conveyed to our employees first,” he said.