LNG

McDermott, the US energy and LNG engineering company, has been awarded an offshore contract from Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering for the Kasawari (Sarawak Gas Field) carbon-capture and storage (CCS) project located offshore Sarawak in East Malaysia.

Under the scope of the contract, McDermott will perform transportation and the structural installation of a 138-kilometre (85 miles) pipeline section, a 15,000 metric tonne (MT) CCS platform jacket and a bridge connecting to the existing central processing platform.

“Set to become one of the largest offshore CCS projects in the world, the Kasawari CCS award showcases the valuable role we have in supporting our clients through the energy transition,” explained Mahesh Swaminathan, McDermott's Senior Vice President, Subsea and Floating Facilities.

Houston-based McDermott said the installation activities would be performed by one of McDermott's heavy-lift and pipelay vessels.

Flaring reduced

Petronas Carigali, the exploration and production arm of state energy company Petronas, said the Kasawari CCS project when completed was expected to reduce carbon-dioxide volumes emitted via flaring by 3.3MT CO2e per annum.

JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., a participant in Asia-Pacific LNG projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, has also been seeking to acquire interests in several natural gas fields offshore Malaysia with CCS attached.

JX Nippon has operated in Malaysia for over 20 years and hopes to focus on additional development initially of the Helang gas field.

The company is also continuing further study of the BIGST project, a large-scale venture that combines the development of high-CO2 gas fields and CCS, in collaboration with Petronas.

Various other Petronas gas fields are targeted for CCS including Bujang, Inas, Guling, Sepat and Tujoh.

The resources in these fields are in the order of several trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas.

The BIGST project study reflects the efforts towards a fast-paced development of new Malaysian gas fields using CCS and storage.

JX Nipppon said that adopting the CCS solution along with gas was in line with the strategy of the company, which is part of the Japanese ENEOS Group.

McDermott, the US energy and LNG project engineering company, has outlined part of the scope of the planned Fujairah LNG production facility being developed in the fifth-largest emirate by area of the seven United Arab Emirates.

McDermott was awarded the contract by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) to provide front-end engineering and design for the plant.

The Fujairah project will be centred around a liquefaction plant with a total capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum.

Fujairah is located outside the Arabian Gulf on the Gulf of Oman. The shores of Fujairah extend for 70 kilometres along the coast from the city of Fujairah.

The emirate shares its boundaries with the emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah to the west and the south respectively.

In the north, Fujairah shares its international border with the Sultanate of Oman, an established LNG producer supplying customers in Asia.

Electric drives

“The plant will be designed with electric drives for the liquefaction compressors and will incorporate several features that significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, capitalizing on the experience McDermott,” said the Houston, Texas-based company.

McDermott said the Fujairah plant would benefit from the “robust capabilities and experience” of the US company in FEED performance.

Our biggest differentiator is our ability to execute this FEED on a fast-track basis incorporating all of the characteristics required to support the award of EPC contracts which are expected in 2023,” said Tareq Kawash, Senior Vice President for Onshore at McDermott.

McDermott was involved in initial phases of Adnoc’s LNG development in the late 1980s that resulted in the Das Island plant in Abu Dhabi, the second-largest emirate after Dubai.

The US company constructed the storage facilities for both LNG and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) on an EPC basis on Das Island.

“We are proud to continue our long history with Adnoc by playing an important role in helping to define the next phase of LNG development in the UAE,” added Kawash.

McDermott noted that it was one of the most experienced engineering and construction firms serving the LNG market and has delivered more than 30 LNG Pre-FEED and FEED projects over the past 10 years.

The Fujairah LNG facilities FEED will be performed by teams in McDermott's offices in London and the UAE.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, has hired former McDermott International Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Samik Mukherjee to serve in the role of Executive Vice President and President of Driftwood Assets.

McDermott International of the US was awarded the main engineering contract from Australian LNG plant operator Santos for the offshore Bayu-Undan infill well that serves the Darwin liquefaction export plant in the Northern Territory.

McDermott said the contract is for subsea, engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) work for the Phase 3C project in the Timor Sea, located about 310 miles (500 kilometres) off the northwest coast of Darwin and 124 miles (200km) off the southeast coast of Timor-Leste.

“McDermott has a strong track record of delivering complex subsea projects in the Asia Pacific,” said Mahesh Swaminathan, McDermott's Senior Vice President for the region.

“We will continue that tradition as we demonstrate our execution expertise and safety excellence throughout this project,” added Swaminathan.

The Bayu-Undan field is one of Timor-Leste's largest gas fields and Santos become operator in May 2020 after buying out the stake of US major ConocoPhillips.

Preliminary work on the Phase 3C project commenced in May 2021 and the scope will be managed by McDermott's office in Perth, Western Australia.

“The McDermott scope involves a tieback of a single in-field well to existing facilities re-using existing flexible flowline with a new umbilical and certain infrastructure,” explained the Houston, Texas-based company.

Santos, as operator of the Bayu-Undan Joint Venture, has already started the new infill drilling programme in the field in the waters of Timor-Leste.

The programme was given a final investment decision in January 2021 and comprises three production wells for additional natural gas and liquids reserves, extending field life as well as production from the offshore facilities and the Darwin liquefaction plant.

The Adelaide-based company said the wells would be drilled using the “Noble Tom Prosser” jack-up rig, with first production expected in the third quarter of 2021.

Santos believes the infill drilling programme will add over 20 million barrels of oil equivalent gross reserves and production at a low cost of supply and importantly extend the life of Bayu-Undan and the jobs and investment that rely on it.

Santos noted that more than 400 Timorese are currently working on Bayu-Undan activities and this will make an important economic contribution to Timor-Leste.

The President of the Timor-Leste National Petroleum and Minerals Authority, Florentino Soares Ferreira, has said the Santos-led venture was important in the history of Timor-Leste.

“It will mark the first drilling campaign in the Bayu-Undan field as Timor-Leste offshore waters, following ratification of the Maritime Boundary Treaty (MBT) between Timor-Leste and Australia,” stated Soares Ferreira.

Santos as operator has a 43.4 percent stake in Bayu-Undan. The remaining stakes are held by South Korea’s SK E&S (25 percent), Inpex Corp. of Japan (11.4 percent), Italy’s Eni (11 percent), while Japanese utilities JERA Co. Inc. and Tokyo Gas own 6.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.

The Philippines LNG project at Batangas Bay on the Filipino main island of Luzon has awarded construction and storage tank contracts to the world’s oldest tank erector, Chicago Bridge and Iron (CB&I).

Oct 21 (LNGJ) - McDermott International, the leading US energy and LNG engineering company, has appointed industry veteran Neil Bruce to its Board. Bruce is a British subject who was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in 2012 for his services to energy engineering. “He started his career in the North Sea with Brown and Root, delivering ground-breaking offshore projects for 10 years, then moved to Atlantic Richfield where he delivered full lifecycle offshore gas development projects,” said McDermott.

   Bruce, from Aberdeen in Scotland, subsequently worked for Amec Plc as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer and Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin where he was President and Chief Executive until 2019. “Neil's leadership and decades of experience navigating our industry's dynamic operating environment strongly supplements our current board,” said McDermott CEO David Dickson.

McDermott International, one of the leading US LNG and energy project contractors, has successfully completed its restructuring process several months after plunging into Chapter 11 bankruptcy status and later emerging with assets sales to raise cash and re-assure creditors.

Anadarko Petroleum, the US company that has agreed to be taken over by Occidental Petroleum and whose liquefied natural gas assets will be sold to French major Total, has awarded the main engineering contract for the onshore Mozambique LNG plant to a consortium of companies from Italy, the US and Japan.