LNG

Technip Energies, the leading liquefied natural gas engineering company, reported reduced first-half profits and revenues as the full withdrawal from the Arctic LNG II project in the Gydan Peninsula of Russia was completed amid the gain of a lucrative contract for the LNG expansion in Qatar and with a new record backlog of contracts.

JGC Holdings Corp., the Japanese energy engineering company with current major liquefied natural gas project work in progress, reported a 30 percent jump in nine-month sales as the Yokohama-based company maintained a healthly backlog of contracts.

JGC said nine-month sales came to 416.6 billion yen ($3.17 billion) compared with 319.4Bln ($2.43Bln) in the period to the end of December 2021.

Among the contracts won by JGC was as head of a consortium with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries for the construction of a nearshore floating LNG project in Malaysia planned by national oil and gas company Petronas.

This facility will be the third floating LNG plant to be constructed for an offshore gas fields in Malaysia. It will have minimum production capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum of LNG and was scheduled for completion in 2027.

JGC’s main responsibilities will cover the engineering, procurement and commissioning work for the FLNG topside, the associated onshore facilities as well as the management of the overall project.

JGC’s consortium partner SHI would be responsible for the FLNG hull EPC work and the modular fabrication of the topside.

The company’s earnings statement showed operating profits rose to 25.3Bln ($185 million) versus 15.3Bln yen ($116M) in the period.

Net profits amounted to 22.5Bln yen ($171 million), down from 44.3Bln yen $337M) in the prior year nine-month period.

JGC’s contracts backlog was 1.58 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) at the end of December 2022.

LNG Canada

The company was also still working towards completion of the LNG Canada project at Kitimat in British Columbia being constructed by Shell and partners. JG's partner on the venture is Fluor Corp. of the US.

JGC was additionally involved in the successful completion of the Coral South floating LNG venture offshore Mozambique for Italian energy company Eni and partners.

FLNG is one of JGC’s speciality spheres and it has been retained along with Europe's Technip Energies for the front-end engineering and design for a similar project offshore Nigeria.

Other JGC outstanding energy industry contracts include the Basra Oil Refinery modernization, the construction of an oil-gas separation unit in Saudi Arabia as well as LNG import terminal work in Taiwan.

The US Mexico-Pacific Ltd (MPL) LNG project company based in Houston has joined with LNG engineering firm Bechtel Inc. on developing a Mexican liquefaction and export facility on the Pacific Coast using US natural gas as the feed gas and processing technology from ConocoPhillips.

McDermott International, the leading LNG and energy project engineering company, has decided to invest in Lummus Technology Holdings, the company it sold as part of its restructuring to help emerge from financial difficulties over the last several years.

Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement for the sale of Lummus Technology, entered into with a joint partnership between Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd., a flagship company of The Chatterjee Group, and Rhône Capital, in January 2020, McDermott was provided the option to purchase a minority common equity ownership interest.

The Houston, Texas-based company said it had now exercised this option.

Lummus is a leading licensor of proprietary petrochemical, refining, gasification and gas processing technologies, and a supplier of catalysts, other equipment and related engineering services.

It became part of McDermott after the ill-timed takeover of CB&I, which itself had acquired Lummus for $950 million in 2007 from Swiss-Swedish power and automation company ABB.

“This agreement not only reinforces our already-robust and active relationship, but also reflects our support of, and belief in the Lummus long-term strategic plan,” said David Dickson, President and Chief Executive of McDermott.

“Together, we will continue to combine McDermott's iEPC delivery with Lummus's innovative technology solutions to our customers across the globe,” added Dickson.

The sale of Lummus was part of McDermott's comprehensive restructuring process, which McDermott successfully completed on June 30 in 2020 to help it emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Since the sale, McDermott and Lummus have continued to work together through their strategic agreement to connect customers to technology solutions.

McDermott is involved in some of the world’s leading LNG construction projects, including on the US Gulf Coast and the North Field Expansion in Qatar.

McDermott has additionally been engaged as a contractor on the Golden Pass LNG export project for Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.

Qatar Petroleum announced in January 2021 that its North Field South (NFS) project front-end engineering and design contract had been awarded to McDermott.

McDermott has executed projects in Qatar's North Field for more than 30 years and said it would leverage its experience and resources for this contract.

The contract scope includes the replication of five offshore wellhead platforms.

The FEED contract will be executed from McDermott's office in the Qatari capital Doha and work would begin immediately.

Qatar’s LNG expansion involves production increasing from the current 77 million tonnes per annum to 110 MTPA and then to 126 MTPA by 2027.

Qatar has already started developing its drilling campaign for the Arab Gulf feed-gas from the North Field that will underpin the liquefaction needs at the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar.

Global law firm Reed Smith announced its hiring of James Atkin as a partner in its global Energy and Natural Resources Group and London office, particularly specializing in liquefied natural gas.

The Sener engineering and technology group in Spain, known in the LNG industry for being a main contractor on the Dutch LNG import terminal in Rotterdam and other projects, has appointed Gabriel Alarcón, up until now General Manager of Technology and Innovation, as Managing Director of Sener Engineering, the area which handles the company's Infrastructure, Energy and Marine activities worldwide.

Alarcón's career in Sener began in 1995, since which time, apart from a brief interval at France’s ALSTOM, he has held various positions of responsibility in technical departments, project management, engineering management and general management.

Alarcón has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where for the last 16 years he has worked as an associate professor in Aeronautical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Postgraduate programs related to Mechanical Engineering, noise and vibrations.

He also has a postgraduate degree in General Management from the IESE business school.

“While I do of course feel enthusiastic about taking on the new professional responsibilities with which Sener have entrusted me, in the current situation it is a challenge with an extra dose of excitement,” said Alarcón.

“I am proud to take on the role of Managing Director of Sener Engineering. We are faced with several circumstances that represent unique opportunities, and we will take advantage of them,” he added.

“We also have the best team of professionals in Sener’s history, which is an impressive feat. We will renew our purpose in society through engineering and technology,” stated Alarcón.

His most recent achievements as General Manager of Technology and Innovation include the restructuring of the Engineering area, with the launch of the Mobility, Energy and Innovation technology units. Through the last of these three units, Sener Engineering has renewed and driven its understanding of innovation and has accelerated its digitization process.

Sener Engineering's portfolio of high-tech projects covers a wide range of fields and locations

SENER Engineering's portfolio runs from the Gate LNG terminal through other ventures such as the Noor Ouarzazate thermosolar plants in Morocco, the Toluca-Mexico City train project in Mexico and software for the comprehensive design of small warships, known as corvettes, being built in Spain for the Royal Saudi Navy.

On the LNG front, the Gate LNG terminal, which came on line in 2011, recently awarded Sener another contract to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services needed for better maintenance and the improvement of activities in work scheduled for 2021.

TechnipFMC, the LNG and energy engineering company, reaffirmed that its planned transaction to separate into two companies, TechnipFMC and Technip Energies, is well on track for completion in the first half of 2020.

McDermott International, the energy and LNG engineering company, reported progress on three US LNG export projects and with other orders pending as it also registered third-quarter losses of $1.9 billion in the midst of a corporate overhaul and asset sales.

French law firm De Gaulle Fleurance and Associés has released the first standard terms and conditions for the sale and purchase of liquefied natural gas, offering a more efficient way to trade LNG on the spot and short-term markets.

The continuation of a trend towards smaller volumes and shorter tenures for liquefied natural gas supply contracts highlights the growing commoditization of the global LNG market even as it raises troubling questions about future supply, according to a US analysis.