Wood Group Kenny (WGK) has been awarded a multi-million dollar engineering contract for the Bonaparte liquefied natural gas (LNG) project offshore Australia in the Timor Sea.
The pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) work was awarded by GDF-Suez and covers subsea concept definition.
This is the French energy group’s first LNG project in Australia and is designed to strengthen its gas markets grip in Asia-Pacific.
The Bonaparte LNG project is made up of the Petrel, Frigate and Tern fields, located in the Timor Sea. They were previously classed as stranded resources but recent technology advances and innovation mean that they are viable as a cluster.
The key is floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) technology, which is largely being pioneered in the Asia-Pac region. The nominal production capacity of the planned Bonaparte FLNG vessel will be around 2million tonnes of LNG a year. The current estimate for reserves for this cluster development is some 220million barrels oil equivalent.
Currently, there are no operational FLNG facilities in the world. However, in recent years a number of projects have been proposed and are now under development in Australia.
So far, it is Shell that is leading the way with its 600,000-tonne FLNG vessel which is destined for the Prelude gasfield in the Browse Basin off north-west Australia.
WGK is at the forefront of Australia’s latest subsea and pipeline projects and has been the engineering partner of choice for world-class developments such as Prelude, Equus, Pluto, Browse, Ichthys, Gorgon, Julimar, and Macedon, all of which are located on the Australian North West Shelf (NWS) and in the Timor Sea.
The Bonaparte LNG project represents a strategically important contract award for WGK as GDF Suez is a new client.
The subsea concept definition study will be executed by WGK’s Australian team located in Perth, Western Australia.
Meanwhile, ExxonMobil with BHP Billiton are seeking Australian government approval to build and install the world’s largest floating LNG production facility at the Scarborough gas field, which is also on the NW Shelf.
The ExxonMobil-operated Scarborough FLNG project would process around 1.1billion cu.ft of gas per day, producing an estimated 6-7million tonnes of LNG a year from five trains.
The vessel will be 495m long, so eclipsing the 488m Prelude floater that is now under construction in South Korea.
Prelude became the world’s first FLNG project to reach a final investment decision. That was in May 2011, and the field is expected to start producing 3.6million tonnes of LNG per year from 2017.
The Scarborough FLNG project is currently in the pre front-end engineering and design phase, and exact schedules are yet to be determined. But the project is expected to progress to the FEED stage in 2013 and to a final investment decision in 2014-2015.
Recommended for you
