Page 10 - GLNG Week 48

GLNG ASIA GLNG
Petronas sets date for second FLNG unit launch, mulls third
INVESTMENT
MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas is on track to launch its second oating lique ed natural gas (FLNG) vessel towards the end of next year, a senior executive has revealed.
e CEO of subsidiary PFLNG, Abang Yusuf Abang Puteh, said PFLNG Dua was expected to start commercial operations in November 2020 a er setting sail from a local shipyard in Febru- ary 2020. e vessel, which will process gas from the deepwater Rotan gas field, had its official naming ceremony at Samsung Heavy Industries’ (SHI) shipyard at South Korea’s Geoje Island on November 27.
“We will be able to start it up in July, followed by commercial operation in November 2020,” the executive told Bernama on December 2.
Abang Puteh said PFLNG Dua would pro- cess gas from Rotan, which lies in 1,300 metres of water and is located 140km o shore Sabah State’s capital of Kota Kinabalu, for at least 15-16 years. He said: “If there are smaller elds around Rotan that are economically viable, it makes more sense to tie it back to the oater rather than relocatingit.”
PFLNG Dua has a production capacity of
1.5mn tonnes per year of LNG and is expected to boost the company’s overall capacity to more than 34mn tpy when it comes online. Construc- tion of the unit, which was handled by JGC and SHI, began in 2015.
e company’s rst FLNG vessel, the 1.2mn tpy PFLNG Satu, is installed at the Kebabangan gas eld in 70-200 metres of water. It also lies o shore Kota Kinabalu. e state major has also said it is open to building a third such vessel if it is commercially viable. In a separate interview with Bernama, Petronas CEO Adnan Zainal Abidin said the company could sign o on an additional unit as long as the size and gas composition of the target reservoir justi ed it.
“ e FLNG vessel can also be built near shore [to develop an onshore reservoir] especially in politically sensitive countries. In case there is a need to move out, you can have the plant moved away,” he told the newswire. He added that the compa- ny’s experience in developing the rst two facilities meant that a third FLNG unit would be cheaper.
“Whenever we nd gas, we have the option to monetiseit.Sothisgivesusanewplaytoremain relevant in the LNG market,” he said.™
EUROPE
PGNiG enters Lithuanian LNG market
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
POLISH gas rm PGNiG has struck a deal for exclusive use of a small-scale LNG refuelling station in Lithuania over a ve-year period, as it looks to build up its LNG business.
e contract, which comes into force in April 2020, was signed with Lithuania’s state-owned Klaipedos Na a (KN), which operates the refu- elling station in Klaipeda as well as a much larger LNG import terminal located 7km nearby.
Announcing the deal, PGNiG said it had gained experience of small-scale LNG sales from operating the Swinoujscie LNG regasi cation plant in Poland, as well as other LNG facilities in Odolanow and Grodzisk Wielkopolski.
“PGNiG will gain better access to the small- scale LNG market in the Baltic countries and increase the competitiveness of its o er for cus- tomers from the area of north-eastern Poland and Central and Eastern Europe by using the onshore LNG reloading station in Lithuania,” the company’s president, Piotr Wozniak, said in a statement. “It is very important from the point of view of security of supply that PGNiG will independently decide from whom to buy and bring LNG to the onshore reloading station in Lithuania.”
e refuelling station can only store 2,250 tonnes of LNG in its tanks, and receives deliver- ies from vessels much smaller than conventional ocean-going tankers. It has two loading bays for LNG road tankers and ISO containers, with a maximum loading rate of 45 tonnes per hour. It is equipped with a wharf designed to load LNG onto smaller-scale vessels. e wharf can also be used to refuel LNG-powered ships at a rate of 112.5-225 tonnes per hour.
Dozens of companies from Lithuania, Esto- nia and Poland have so far used the station since its launch in October 2017, according to KN. e Lithuanian rm’s CEO, Darius Silenskis, noted that having PGNiG as a strategic part- ner at the station would create synergy in its operations.
e market for small-scale sales of LNG is growing in Europe, as companies take steps to cut their emissions to comply with new EU tar- gets and respond to consumer pressure. LNG produces considerably less nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, ne particles and other pollut- ants than conventional marine, road and rail transport fuels. It is also seen as an attractive fuel source at industrial plants.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 48 05•December•2019