Page 9 - GLNG Week 02 2023

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Inpex to accelerate LNG plans

RETAILING JAPANESE oil and gas firm Inpex plans to accel- resources to underpin a further expansion in
erate the expansion of its LNG production and Ichthys’ capacity around 2030, potentially.
sales business, predicting that the market will Inpex, part-owned by the Japanese govern-
continue to be tight in the medium term, its CEO ment, aims to take a final investment decision
told Reuters on January 12. (FID) on the Abadi LNG project in Indonesia in
“Global LNG market is expected to remain the latter half of this decade and bring the pro-
tight in the mid-term due to the structural ject on stream in the early 2030s. The project has
change of the global natural gas market since the been in limbo for years because of changes to
Russian invasion of Ukraine,” CEO Takayuki planning and more recently Shell’s intention to
Ueda told the news agency. withdraw. Indonesia is looking for an investor to
The LNG market was on track for significant replace Shell, which has a 35% interest.
growth before Moscow launched its invasion of Indonesia’s regulator had said in September
Ukraine a year ago. While high prices are set to that Inpex would be filing a revised development
result in subdued demand for natural gas glob- plan for Abadi LNG by the end of 2022 but it did
ally in the years ahead, subsequent drastic cuts to not do so, according to Ueda.
Russian pipeline supplies to Europe have driven “The partner issue and the carbon capture
up demand for LNG. and storage (CCS) details are very important and
“We’ll make more efforts to acquire assets that it’s difficult to move the project forward unless
can respond to future demand growth of LNG, those issues are addressed,” he said.
including expanding Ichthys, “ Ueda said, refer- Inpex struck a 20-year deal in December with
ring to Inpex’s liquefaction project in Australia. US player Venture Global to import 1mn tonnes
Inpex plans to ramp up LNG production per year (tpy) from the latter’s Louisiana project.
and sales faster than it had targeted in its medi- This was Inpex’s first major offtake contract, and
um-term strategy unveiled last February, before Ueda expects similar deals to be clinched. Inpex
the war in Ukraine began. Output at Ichthys wants to boost its overall LNG output and trad-
is due to rise from 8.9mn tonnes currently ing volume to 10mn tpy by 2030 from 7mn tpy
to 9.3mn tonnes in 2024. And Inpex plans to now.™
explore the surrounding areas to find extra

Duo picked to build Malaysia’s

first FLNG plant

FLOATING LNG JAPAN’S JGC and South Korea’s Samsung expanding Petronas’ overall production capac-
Heavy Industries have secured an engineering, ity from FLNG facilities to 4.7mn tpy. Its existing
procurement, construction and commissioning two FLNG plants, PFLNG SATU and PFLNG
(EPCC) contract to build Petronas’ third floating DUA, are located at the Kebabangan and Rotan
LNG plant. offshore gas fields respectively.
According to TradeWinds, the duo outbid a JGC is a natural pick for the new project, as
consortium of Saipem and Wilson Offshore & the company built all nine of Petronas’ existing
Marine for the contract. The ZFLNG project is trains at its LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak,
valued at around $3bn, the trade publication which has an overall capacity of 29mn tpy. It also
reprted. built its second FLNG facility.
ZFLNG is set to produce 2mn tonnes per year At the same time as expanding its LNG capac-
(tpy) of LNG, and is a first-of-a-kind project, ity, Malaysia is also looking to ramp up explo-
Petronas said in December, when it announced ration. Petronas and its international partners
a FEED design competition for its nearshore drilled twice as many exploration wells in 2022
FLNG project in Sabah in Malaysia. Petronas as in the previous year, achieving a 60% success
aims to take a final investment decision (FID) by rate. These campaigns resulted in 10 hydrocar-
the end of this year. bon discoveries.™
The plant’s start-up is scheduled for 2026,

Week 02 12•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P9