LNG

KBR, the US energy and civil engineering company, has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract by Australia’s Woodside Energy for the Pluto LNG project in Western Australia.

The task of KBR will be to undertake modifications to Train 1 of Woodside's Pluto liquefaction facility.

The Houston-based company explained that modifications will enable the processing of up to three million tonnes per annum of offshore Scarborough gas field through Train 1, while Pluto Train 2 is built in a separate project.

“KBR is pleased to support Woodside in the modification of the Pluto Train 1 LNG facility to enable processing of Scarborough gas, and in turn provide opportunity to extend the life of the plant,” said Jay Ibrahim, President at KBR of Sustainable Technology Solutions.

More jobs

“We are also excited to focus on engaging local and Indigenous businesses to support the project and proud to be creating jobs and opportunities within Western Australia,” Ibrahim stated.

KBR has nearly 50 years of experience in designing, developing and supporting LNG facilities. The company has overhauled existing liquefaction Trains at LNG plants worldwide.

The Pluto LNG onshore processing facility is located near Karratha in the northwest of Western Australia and the first cargo from the single-Train facility was delivered in 2012.

Woodside’s Pluto feed-gas supplies come from the Pluto and Xena gas fields. However, the additional Scarborough field will provide Train 1 with a longer lifespan as well as enabling the building of second liquefaction Train at the Pluto facility.

The second Train will have 5 million tonnes per annum of output and take total nameplate capacity of both Trains to at least 8.2 MTPA.

The Scarborough field is located about 375 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia and is estimated to contain 11.1 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.

Development of Scarborough includes the installation of a floating production unit (FPU) with eight wells drilled in the initial phase and 13 wells drilled over the life of the Scarborough field.

Equity sale

Woodside announced in August 2023 that it was selling equity in the Scarborough joint venture to LNG Japan Corp.

The Japanese company will also import LNG from the Scarborough volumes and collaborate in new energy opportunities. 

A sale and purchase agreement was signed with the LNG Japan entity for the sale of a 10 percent non-operating participating interest in the joint venture for $500 million, subject to adjustments. 

The Japanese venture will additionally reimburse Woodside for its share of expenditure for the Scarborough project, effective from 1st January, 2022.

LNG Japan is a 50-50 joint venture between Sumitomo Corp and Sojitz Corp., two of Japan’s seven largest general trading companies who are known in Japanese as the “sogo shosha”.

Sembcorp Marine of Singapore said it signed a contract with US engineering company Bechtel for module assembly of the second liquefaction Train proposed for Woodside’s Pluto LNG export project in Western Australia.

McDermott of the US has won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project after successfully completing front-end design services for a booster compression module for the Australian Ichthys LNG project operated by Inpex of Japan.

The module will be added to the “Ichthys Explorer” central processing facility, located off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

The Ichthys plant came on stream in 2018 and produces almost 9 million tonnes per annum of LNG from two processing Trains, while the Ichthys gas field is offshore northwest Australia and connected to the plant by a 890-kilometre subsea pipeline.

Shares in Ichthys LNG held by Inpex amount to around 66 percent of equity, while French major TotalEnergies has 26 percent.

Micro-stakes are additionally held by customers CPC Corp. of Taiwan and Japan’s main utilities and LNG buyers, JERA Co. Inc., Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric and Toho Gas.

“Ichthys LNG is ranked among the most significant and complex energy developments in the world,” explained Mahesh Swaminathan, McDermott's Senior Vice President for the Asia-Pacific region.

“We've been there since 2012, and we are very familiar with the Ichthys gas field,” added Swaminathan.

This is the third contract McDermott has been awarded for the project after successfully completing FEED services and converting contracts to EPCI.

McDermott's EPC scope involves a booster compression module which will extend the production from the gas reservoir to the central processing facility.

McDermott is currently undertaking work on umbilicals, risers and flowlines as part of an expansion of the existing offshore facilities.

The work will be executed from McDermott's Engineering Centres in Perth, Western Australia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Chennai on the East Coast of India.

“Fabrication will be completed at McDermott's yard on Batam island in Indonesia, which has been delivering complex offshore and onshore structures for over 50 years,” added McDermott.

TechnipFMC plans to begin the spin-off transactions on February 12 for Technip Energies to pursue its own path as one of the leading liquefied natural gas engineering companies with current LNG export projects in nations such as Russia and Mexico.