South Korean shipbuilding major Samsung Heavy Industries has secured an order for a floating liquefied natural gas (abbreviated FLNG) unit. SHI stated on Tuesday that the order was from an owner in North America and is worth $1.56 billion. But, this is a conditional deal and will be subject to a finalized investment decision on the project, per SHI.
SHI has also formed a consortium with the US engineering firm Black & Veatch and signed an engineering, procurement, and construction (abbreviated EPC) deal for the design, procurement, and construction of this FLNG. Following the agreement, the shipbuilder will be responsible for the FLNG’s hull and its topside plant processes. It has planned to deliver the unit by 2028 (Feb).
SHI mentioned that the deal was signed on 29 December 2023 and was included in last year’s order book. This is the second FLNG deal for SHI as the shipbuilder and JGC (of Japan) secured a deal last year from Petronas (Malaysia) to build the first-ever nearshore FLNG that boasts a nearly 2 million tons capacity.
Besides this whopping $1.5 billion FLNG deal, it has secured orders for seven LNG carriers worth nearly $1.8 billion.
The SHI won $8.3 billion in orders in 2023, achieving 87% of the yearly order target of about $9.5 billion.
Cedar LNG. SHI has not revealed the owner’s name.
The order is most likely related to the Cedar floating LNG assignment, but LNG Prime couldn’t confirm this when the article was published. Apart from Cedar, Delfin Midstream, the US developer of a floating LNG export assignment based in the Gulf of Mexico, has also been looking at ordering more FLNG units at SHI. Pembina Pipeline and the Haisla Nation signed a deal in November 2023 with Black & Veatch and SHI to secure access to the shipyard capacity for the Cedar floating LNG export assignment.
Cedar LNG mentioned that the deal offers the JV, exclusively Black & Veatch and SHI, securing access to shipyard capacity to satisfy Cedar LNG’s target date of commercial operations. The JV further stated that at that time, the parties were likely to finalize a lump-sum engineering, procurement, anduction deal in December.
Pembina and Haisla Nation each have 50% in this Cedar LNG project. In 2023, Black & Veatch and SHI secured the front-end engineering and design (abbreviated FEED) deal for the floating liquefaction, storage, and offloading unit (abbreviated FLNG) deal. It is also going to source natural gas from the Montney resource play based in northeast British Columbia.
Cedar LNG also plans to receive feed gas from the Coastal GasLink pipeline to supply the Shell-led LNG Canada export plant close to Kitimat. The floating LNG facility will also be close to the LNG Canada plant and powered by renewable electricity generated from BC Hydro. In December 2023, Pembina Pipeline and Haisla Nation reportedly postponed the ultimate floating LNG export assignment decision. They plan to take FID by the end of the first quarter now.