Thailand’s state energy company PTTEP chooses US engineers McDermott for contract offshore Sabah in Malaysia
Thailand’s state-run energy firm, Public Company Exploration and Production (PTTEP), has awarded US engineers McDermott a sizeable contract for transportation, installation and commissioning of a project offshore the state of Sabah in east Malaysia.
US energy and LNG engineering company McDermott awarded contract for one of world’s largest CCS projects
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.
Asia-Pacific LNG player JX Nippon signs accord on developing five natural gas fields offshore Malaysia
JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., a participant in Asia-Pacific LNG projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, has signed an accord to initiate discussions about acquiring interests in five natural gas fields offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
The move to set up talks comes in the form of a Heads of Agreement (HOA) between JX Nippon and Petronas Carigali, an exploration and production unit of Malaysian state energy company Petronas.
The five Petronas gas fields are called Bujang, Inas, Guling, Sepat and Tujoh and are located offshore Kerteh in eastern Malaysia.
JX Nippon said it conducted a joint study with Japanese state agency Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (Jogmec) from April 2020 until September 2021 to commercialize the fields which have a particularly high carbon-dioxide level.
The Japanese plan involves bringing the gas fields into production and in an environmentally-friendly way by capturing CO2 from the produced gas and reinjecting it into nearby mature gas fields by using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology.
Feasible
“Since the study concluded that the development of such high CO2 gas field is feasible with low environmental impact by utilizing CCS technology, JX came to the decision to further evaluate these gas fields and work together towards submitting the business value proposal to Petronas,” explained JX Nippon.
The Japanese Jogmec agency has since the study with JX Nippon changed its name to the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security.
“JX Nippon said that it understood that this initiative contributes to not only stable supply of natural gas to Peninsular Malaysia but at the same time expands its business in Malaysia which is one of the core countries for JX,” said the Japanese company.
Adopting the CCS solution is in line with the strategy of JX Nippon, which is part of the Japanese ENEOS Group.
A signing ceremony on the JX Nippon-Petronas accord was held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur involving Chief Executive Hasliza Othman and JX Nippon’s Managing Director in Malaysia, Yasuto Ariga.
The five gas fields are known in Malaysia as the BIGST fields and are part of a hydrocarbon cluster.
“The gas supply from the BIGST fields is important for Peninsular Malaysia’s energy security given the significant potential that exists within the cluster,” explained Petronas.
“CCS technology will be a key solutions in monetising the fields since these fields contain high CO2 and their development will be the first CCS project in Peninsular Malaysia,” added Petronas.
