Wood To Design Sino-US Platform LNG Venture
The Shanghai-based Honghua Group has awarded a $12mn front-end engineering design (Feed) contract to UK-based contractor Wood Group, the latter announced October 17.
The Feed work is for an LNG platform development in the West Delta area of the US Gulf that Houston-based developer Argo LNG, headed by ex Hoegh LNG CEO Gunnar Knutsen, aims to complete around 2020. Argo signed an initial accord to award $1.8bn of construction work to Honghua last year.
Wood said that its main objective is to finalise design of the world's first offshore-platform-based natural gas liquefaction and storage facility (PLNG).
The company recently completed the pre-Feed for this project. It will now update and complete the preliminary design of the full offshore gas liquefaction facility. The project is designed to produce up to 4.2mn metric tons/yr of LNG and to store 300,000 m3 of LNG, enough to fill 120 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"We are very excited to be a part of this ingenious project,” said Andrew Stewart, CEO of Wood's Asset Solutions Americas business. The Feed is being conducted in collaboration with EnTX GasTek Global, a Baker Hughes GE subsidiary, and Braemar Technical Services, the owner's engineer on this “LNG 21” project.
Honghua Offshore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Honghua Group, signed a heads of agreement on October 28 2016 with Argo LNG partners, relating to a construction contract worth some $1.8bn for the offshore PLNG venture.
Honghua said it was working with GE, Braemar, Wood Group and Shanghai-based China Aerospace on what they termed ‘The Sino-US Integrated Solution to LNG Industry’; Braemar is leading the design and development of the so-called unique ‘FSP LNG’ storage system.
In October 2016 Honghua said that the first PLNG set is scheduled to be installed in the US Gulf and will take two to three years to complete construction, including four production platforms, four storage platforms, an accommodation platform, a central processing platform, and a pier to moor LNG vessels carrying 30,000m3 to 260,000m3 LNG. It had originally stated that the maximum design capabilities for LNG process and storage were 3.6mn mt/yr and 240,000 m3/yr respectively.
Wood said that its scope of Feed work also includes the onshore gas pre-treatment plant configuration and layout; general utilities; feed gas processing and compression; plus transportation and delivery via repurposed pipelines from the existing onshore Toca and Venice, Louisiana, facilities to the LNG facility 10 miles offshore.
Wood added that once complete, around 2020, gas from the Texas Permian Basin will be transported to the offshore platform where it will be liquefied, stored and ultimately exported globally. Wood will compile and develop the necessary technical documentation for a deep water port permit application to the United States Maritime Administration.
Although Wood is UK-based, it incorporates AmecFW of which Foster Wheeler, a largely US-based LNG specialist contractor, was a part.
Mark Smedley