LNG

Fluor Corp. of US and Japan’s JGC Corp. of Japan have completed the final weld on first liquefaction Train at the LNG Canada joint venture at Kitimat on the Pacific Coast province of British Columbia.

JGC Holdings Corp., which is involved in liquefied natural gas projects in nations such as Canada, Nigeria, Malaysia, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea, has become the first Japanese company using building information modeling (BIM) to receive the British Standards Institution (BSI) Kitemark certification.

JGC Corp., the overseas engineering, procurement and construction business of Japan’s JGC Group, said it would head a consortium with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries for construction of a nearshore floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in Malaysia planned by Petronas.

JGC Holdings Corp., the Japanese energy and LNG projects engineer, with LNG contracts in Canada and Mozambique and elsewhere, reported a fall in nine-month profits amid engineering slowdowns in some areas caused by Covid-19 while sales increased in the period.

JGC Holdings Corp. of Japan, the leading global builder of liquefied natural gas liquefaction facilities, has been commissioned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to design a fuel plant for the moon.

JGC Corp said a lawsuit has been filed against it and engineering partners, Chiyoda Corp. and KBR of the US, in the Yokohama District Court by the Ichthys LNG project in Australia, led by Japan’s Inpex Corp., claiming around A$758 million (US$595M) in a long-running dispute.

JGC had formed a joint venture company with Chiyoda and KBR, called JKC Australia, and was awarded a project for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services of the onshore LNG plant at Bladin Point near Darwin in the Northern Territory in 2012 by Ichthys LNG, led by Inpex.

“All plant facilities were completed and delivered,” explained JGC.

“However, in the course of the execution of the project, sub-contractors requested additional payments to cover their increased costs,” it added.

JGC said that a funding deed for the sum of A$757.7M was agreed and payment was made by the Plaintiff (Ichthys LNG-Inpex) to the EPC joint venture for the additional costs.

Subsequently, a dispute concerning the settlement of the additional costs arose, and an arbitration process was conducted in Singapore.

Analysts said that the Yokohama court showdown follows on from the failed arbitration and previous legal cases.

During the course of the arbitration, the Plaintiff (Ichthys LNG-Inpex) demanded that the joint venture returns the full amount of the funds by the end of December 2020, but the JGC, KBR, Chiyoda joint venture refused on the grounds that the correct settlement procedures under the signed deed had not been followed and the arbitration award to determine this had not been made.

Having considered this, the Ichthys LNG-Inpex delivered a letter to the joint venture in January 2021.

The letter requested that the JGC, KBR and Chiyoda venture repay the full amount to the Plaintiff.

However, the EPC joint venture declined the request. The liability share of the partners in the venture are JGC 40 percent, KBR 30 percent and Chiyoda 30 percent.

In the lawsuit just filed in Yokohama by the Plaintiff seeks “subrogation” against the EPC firms for the full amount of the funds provided by the Plaintiff, plus legal costs.

JGC said it was examining the details of this lawsuit and would take appropriate action.

Dec 16 (LNGJ) - JGC Holdings Corp., the Japanese LNG and energy engineering company, said its subsidiary in Saudi Arabia, JGC Gulf International, signed a six-year comprehensive agreement with Saudi Aramco for brownfield oil and gas projects. “The agreement covers various engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works for upgrade or modification of existing oil and gas plants owned and operated by Aramco,” said JGC, without disclosing the contract value.

   “Plant modification work is extremely challenging, as it requires thorough knowledge of plant equipment configuration and location, incorporation of the latest technology into the design, as well as the planning and execution of a prompt and safe construction plan tailored to the plant's operating conditions,” explained the Yokohama-based company.

JGC Corp. of Japan, one of the leading global LNG engineering companies with contracts at LNG Canada in British Columbia and hopeful of new contracts in Qatar and Oman, has been awarded a key domestic Japanese contract for an LNG-for-power project.

The company, based in Yokohama, has been an industry leader in the construction of LNG production plants in countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Qatar and Russia.

Now JGC Japan Corp., which operates the domestic engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) business of the JGC Group, said it received an order for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning work for a high-efficiency gas turbine power generation facility at Sumitomo Chemical’s Chiba Works in Ichihara City in Chiba Prefecture.

“This project involves decommissioning the petroleum coke power generation facility currently operating at Sumitomo Chemical's Chiba Works and constructing a high-efficiency gas turbine power generation facility fueled by liquefied natural gas,” explained JGC Japan.

“The LNG-fired plant, which will have a low carbon-dioxide emissions coefficient, is part of Sumitomo Chemical's efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases,” said JGC.

“By introducing this facility, Sumitomo Chemical plans to reduce CO2 emissions at Chiba Works by 240,000 tons or more a year, equivalent to approximately 20 percent of the plant's total annual CO2 emissions,” added JGC.

The company said it was aiming to contribute to realizing a sustainable society by contributing to curbing CO2 emissions.

“This will be through focusing on constructing LNG plants and thermal power plants fueled by LNG, which among fossil fuels has a low CO2 emissions coefficient, as well as renewable energy plants such as photovoltaic and biomass power plants,” it stated.

JGC said that it believed it was chosen by Sumitomo Chemical because of its overseas reputation in the LNG and gas power sector.

“The selection as the contractor for this project is believed to reflect the client's overall positive evaluation of the Group's excellent engineering technologies, its rich track record of constructing gas turbine power generation facilities overseas, and its ability to provide flexible proposals,” added JGC.

The scope of the EPCC contract is for a high-efficiency gas turbine power generation facility (output: 45,000kW or more) and a heat recovery steam generator (vapor: 80 tons/h or more),” it added.

The company said in its most recent earnings that its outstanding LNG contracts in progress amounted to 555.5Bln yen ($5.28Bln), including LNG Canada for Royal Dutch Shell and its Asian partners.

JGC’s joint venture engineering partner for LNG Canada is Fluor Corp of the US.

The company’s other ongoing project is the Coral Floating LNG contract offshore Mozambique for Italian energy company Eni.

JGC said it was still hopeful for contract awards in the months ahead for the Qatar LNG expansion and the LNG bunkering project in the Sultanate of Oman in the Arabian Peninsula.

The main parent company JGC Holdings said in September 2020 that it had brought in structural reforms and was seeking to enhance competitiveness of its overseas engineering operations by streamlining project execution.

On winning the Sumitomo Chemical contract, JGC also said that it was undertaking broad-ranging initiatives from the three standpoints of constructing plants and facilities that contribute to reducing the burden on the environment, manufacturing functional materials supporting carbon reduction and conserving environment, as well as the commercialization of environmental technologies.