ABB and Wison Offshore & Marine (WOM) have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) projects.
"FLNG facilities make the production, liquefaction, and storage of natural gas possible at sea, from where it can be shipped directly to customers around the world. By optimizing and standardizing the FLNG unit design, ABB and WOM aim to significantly improve the production efficiency of LNG at sea," the companies said in a statement.
"WOM’s competence as a premier provider of turnkey engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) to the FLNG market will be coupled with ABB’s expertise in integrating electrical, control and safety systems," they added.
Wei Huaqing, Assistant President of WOM said: “The FLNG market continues to grow. We are pleased to be working with ABB and look forward to leveraging our complementary expertise to deliver more value for FLNG customers around the world. By combining our bespoke offerings, we believe we can increase productivity in greenfield developments and in doing so improve overall CAPEX efficiency.”
The agreement will also utilize ABB’s project methodology called Adaptive Execution, which, per ABB, offers customers complete visibility of their project, from start to finish, via a single, streamlined and centralized approach.
Cruise-Feng Li, head of ABB Energy Industries China, commented: “Adaptive Execution can help unlock significant project value for FLNG customers. By designing in a modular and standardized way, and testing everything in a virtual environment, we can tackle design challenges early on, boost performance and ensure the reliability of the infrastructure. This enables all the parties involved in the project to achieve more in shorter timeframes, optimizing the overall delivery schedule and saving on cost.”
According to ABB, the company has so far delivered power and automation solutions to over 70 floating production projects around the world. Wison Offshore & Marine provides engineering, procurement, construction and installation solutions to the energy industry, including floating LNG facilities, modularized LNG plant, floating gas-to-power facilities, and floating wind power.
There are currently four FLNG units in operation, one in Australia (Shell's Prelude FLNG), two in Malaysia (Petronas' PFLNG SATU and PFLNG Dua), one in Cameroon (Perenco's FLNG Hilli Episeyo). Worth noting, the fifth unit, Eni's Coral FLNG, which was recently moored off Mozambique, is expected to go online later this year.
According to World Energy Reports' (paywall), near-term production floater contracts update, five more FLNG project are likely to reach the EPC contract stage by Q4 2023.
