Page 4 - GLNG Week 47

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG
Qatar delays NFE award, expands LNG production plan
Despite delays at its North Field Expansion project, Qatar has increased its LNG production outlook on positive results from recent drilling and appraisal work at the field
PERFORMANCE
WHAT:
Qatar now expects to produce 126mn tpy of LNG by 2027.
WHY:
The country has raised its reserves estimate for the North Field.
WHAT NEXT:
Qatargas is reported
to have delayed the submission deadline for bids under the umbrella of the North Field Expansion.
REPORTS emerged last week that Qatargas had delayed the submission date for bids for onshore work under the umbrella of its North Field Expansion (NFE) project, while bidding is set to begin for work at the Al-Shaheen oilfield.
Project observers were quoted by Upstrea- monline as saying that bidding for two “sub- stantial onshore packages comprising the liquefaction and storage facilities” would now take place in Q1 2020 after missing the October deadline.
Meanwhile, another source said that this delay would push back the submission of bids for NFE’s key engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal until mid-2020.
In July, US-based services firm McDermott was awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract as part of the major project.
The FEED contract covers wellhead plat- forms, pipelines and cables. In a press release, McDermott said that the scope of the work entailed the design of four offshore trunklines with intra-field pipelines, eight wellhead plat- forms and power and fibre-optic (PFO) subsea cable rings. The contract is thought to be worth up to $50mn.
The estimated US$20bn expansion of the North Field has been the focus of external and internal attention on the Qatari energy sector since it was launched nearly two years ago.
The scheme was designed to raise upstream output by 1.4mn barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to 6.2mn boepd and expand LNG production by 31mn tonnes per year to 110mn tpy. However, this week, QP said positive results from recent drilling and appraisal work had led it to raise its production expectations to 126mn tpy by 2027.
The contracting process on the NFE is well underway, with a tender for the four new LNG trains issued in mid-April. On April 22, QP turned to the transportation process, issuing a tender for potentially in excess of 100 LNG tankers.
The main package, worth several billion dol- lars, covers four 7.8mn tpy LNG ‘mega-trains’ at the site where 14 trains of varying sizes currently produce just over 77mn tpy.
Japan’s Chiyoda was selected for the FEED contract in March 2018 and, in joint venture (JV) with TechnipFMC, is the strong favour- ite. Chiyoda and TechnipFMC installed the six
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 47 28•November•2019