Shell and engineering company Technip have signed a heads of agreement to enhance collaboration on the design, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of future innovative floating LNG projects, the latter said Thursday.
"The agreement builds on the existing relationship, formed in 2009, to ensure the parties can capitalize on insights gleaned from the design and construction of Shell's Prelude FLNG facility and expand the technology offering to the energy market," Technip said in its statement.
The Prelude FLNG project off Western Australia is the first of what Shell hopes will be many FLNG projects. Shell signed a global master agreement in July 2009 with a consortium comprising Technip and Samsung Heavy Industries to design and build multiple Shell FLNG facilities over a period of 15 years.
Shell said in October that it had started major construction of Prelude, which is expected to have production capacity of around 3.6 million mt/year of LNG, 1.3 million mt/year of condensate and 400,000 mt/year of LPG. Shell operates Prelude with a 67.5% stake, partnering Japan's Inpex (17.5%), Korea Gas Corp. (10%) and Taiwan's CPC (5%).
"Shell's FLNG vision and ambition is gaining momentum and Technip, with its partner Samsung Heavy Industries, is proud to support the additional projects that could be realized under this agreement," said Technip's CEO Thierry Pilenko.
Shell's Director of Projects and Technology Matthias Bichsel said it and Technip's portfolio expansion would focus on technology designs that cater for a wider range of gas fields.
"In locations where liquid production is low ... Shell's FLNG Lean technology would be able to process additional gas and produce more LNG, opening up new business opportunities for countries looking to develop their gas resources," Bichsel said.
Inpex and Shell are also partners at the Abadi LNG project offshore Indonesia. The plan of development for the first phase of Abadi is based on a 2.5 million mt/year FLNG concept. Inpex said last month it had awarded a front-end engineering and design contract to UK-based engineering company Wood Group for subsea production facilities at Abadi.
