Misplaced Pages

#273726

56-479: A floating liquefied natural gas ( FLNG ) facility is a floating production storage and offloading unit that conducts liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations for developing offshore natural gas resources. Floating above an offshore natural gas field, the FLNG facility produces liquefied stores and transfers LNG (and potentially LPG and condensate ) at sea before carriers ship it to markets. Recent developments in

112-549: A consortium of Technip and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for a facility in Malaysia . It installed its first FLNG, PFLNG Satu , in the Kanowit gas field off the shore of Sarawak , Malaysia. It loaded its first cargo was onto the 150,200-cbm Seri Camellia LNG carrier on 3 April 2017. Petrobras invited three consortiums to submit proposals for engineering, procurement and construction contracts for FLNG plants in

168-653: A cost below USD100 million. The FPSO operating in the deepest waters is the FPSO BW Pioneer , built and operated by BW Offshore on behalf of Petrobras Americas INC. The FPSO is moored at a depth of 2,600 m in Block 249 Walker Ridge in the US Gulf of Mexico and is rated for 80,000 bbl/d (13,000 m /d). The EPCI contract was awarded in October 2007 and production started in early 2012. The FPSO conversion

224-624: A facility by 2016–19, and had completed the quantitative risk analysis of a design that would undergo pre-FEED study during the remainder of 2011. GDF Suez Bonaparte – a joint venture undertaken by the Australian oil and gas exploration company Santos (40%) and the French multi-international energy company GDF Suez (60%) – initially awarded a pre-FEED contract for the Bonaparte FLNG project offshore Northern Australia. The first phase of

280-413: A new development with LNG transfer systems. In July 2009, Royal Dutch Shell , or just Shell, signed an agreement with Technip and Samsung allowing for the design, construction and installation of multiple Shell FLNG facilities. Royal Dutch Shell announced a 12 billion AUD (8.71 billion USD ) investment on 20 May 2011 to build Prelude FLNG . Construction began in October 2012. Prelude became

336-485: A previously proposed capacity of 4.5 million tonnes). As of November 2010, Chevron Corporation was considering an FLNG facility to develop offshore discoveries in the Exmouth Plateau of Western Australia, while in 2011, ExxonMobil was waiting for an appropriate project to launch its FLNG development. According to a presentation given by their engineers at GASTECH 2011, ConocoPhillips aimed to implement

392-417: A related type, floating liquefied natural gas vessels, went into service in 2016. FPSOs are classified into the following types. A floating storage and offloading unit ( FSO ) is essentially an FPSO without the capability for oil or gas processing. Most FSOs are converted single hull supertankers . An example is Knock Nevis , ex Seawise Giant , which for many years was the world's largest ship. It

448-464: A system of listric normal faults near the eastern region of the Exmouth Plateau. These listric faults were a product from the development of a major low angle detachment fault between a sedimentary base of Permian-Triassic upper crust and the mid-crustal horizon. As a result, brittle deformation and crustal thinning in the upper crust of the eastern Exmouth Plateau occurred, while in the west,

504-708: Is designed by Black & Veatch and was built in Keppel Shipyard in Singapore . Fortuna FLNG, to be commissioned in 2020, is owned by a joint venture between Ophir Energy and Golar LNG is under development in Equatorial Guinea . When operational, it is expected to produce around 2.2 million tonnes per year of gas and to be the first FLNG to operate in Africa. Moving LNG production to an offshore setting presents several challenges. In terms of

560-559: Is designed to handle 800,000 bbl/d (130,000 m /d) with no allowance for downtime. The Skarv FPSO , developed and engineered by Aker Solutions for BP Norge , is one of the most advanced and largest FPSO deployed in the Norwegian Sea, offshore Mid Norway . Skarv is a gas condensate and oil field development. The development ties in five sub-sea templates, and the FPSO has capacity to include several smaller wells nearby in

616-413: Is relatively clean burning. It is also abundant. It may be able to meet some of the world's energy needs by realizing the potential of otherwise unviable gas reserves (several of which can be found offshore North West Australia). FLNG technology also provides a number of environmental and economic advantages: The FLNG facility will be moored directly above the natural gas field, where it will route gas from

SECTION 10

#1732801984274

672-428: Is to be situated 200 km off the coast of Western Australia and is due for completion in around 2016. It will be the largest vessel ever built. Royal Dutch Shell (2013), LNG FPSO (Liquefied Natural Gas Floating production Storage and Offloading), Samsung Heavy Industries at a cost of $ 12 Billion. In June 2012, Petronas made a contract of procurement engineering, construction, installation and commissioning, with

728-513: The Atlantic Ocean , it weighs 81,000 tonnes and is 285 meters long, 63 meters wide, and 32 meters high (935 ft by 207 ft by 105 ft). The first FSO in the Gulf of Mexico, The FSO Ta'Kuntah , has been in operation since August 1998. The FSO, owned and operated by MODEC , is under a service agreement with PEMEX Exploration and Production. The vessel was installed as part of

784-710: The Indian Ocean roughly 3,000 meters offshore from western and northwestern Western Australia . The plateau makes up the westernmost structural unit of the Northern Carnarvon Basin , which comprises the Exmouth, Barrow, Dampier, and Beagle Sub-basins, and the Rankin Platform. The Exmouth Plateau was once a part of the northern shore of eastern of Gondwanaland until it broke away during Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous , leaving behind

840-681: The oceanic crust of the Argo, Cuvier, and Gascoyne abyssal plains that now surround the distal margins of Exmouth Plateau. In the Late Jurassic , Gondwanaland begins to break apart creating Western Gondwana, which was composed of the South American and African continental land masses, and Eastern Gondwana. The Eastern Gondwanian continent was composed of Madagascar, Greater India, Antarctica, and Australia. During this period of time Australia shared its southern margin with Antarctica and

896-562: The Cantarell Field Development. The field is located in the Bay of Campeche, offshore Mexico's Yucatán peninsula. It is a converted ULCC tanker with a SOFEC external turret mooring system, two flexible risers connected in a lazy-S configuration between the turret and a pipeline end manifold (PLEM) on the seabed, and an offloading system that allows up to two tankers at a time to moor and load, in tandem or side by side. The FSO

952-782: The Mungaroo laid down only for a short period of time between the beginning of the Rhaetian to the Early Hettangian . Due to the thickness of fluvial deltaic deposits from the Mungaroo Formation, the transgressional sequence of the Brigadier Formation is correlated with the subsidence of sub-basins across region during the Middle and Late Triassic . The distribution of sediment packages throughout

1008-817: The Northern Carnarvon Basin and Exmouth Plateau varies with location during the Jurassic. By the Pliensbachian , the general beginning structure of the Northern Carnarvon Basin was formed, creating the Exmouth, Barrow, and Dampier sub-basins along the proximal end of the northwestern Australian margin. Rapid subsidence of the Northern Carnarvon sub-basins ensued the deposition of the Dingo Claystones. These Claystones are thick marine shale deposits separated into two sequence,

1064-646: The Permian extension that occurred just prior to the late Triassic extension event across the northwestern margin of Australia. Lying atop unconformable unit of Paleozoic sediments, the Locker Shale is composed of marine sediments deposited in a transgressional environment during the Late Permian extension. These marine sediments were deposited at the base of the Late Triassic and continued up until

1120-515: The Technip and DSME consortium, for what is expected to be the world's first floating liquefaction unit when completed in 2015. The unit is destined for the Kanowit gas field off Sarawak, Malaysia. At the opposite (discharge and regasification) end of the LNG chain, the first ever conversion of an LNG carrier, Golar LNG owned Moss type LNG carrier into an LNG floating storage and regasification unit

1176-559: The Upper and Lower Dingo Claystones. The Lower Dingo sequence cannot be found in the Exmouth Plateau, because deposition During the Early to Middle Jurassic was restricted to sediments filling in the empty troughs of the Northern Carnarvon sub-basins. As deposition continued through the Middle and Late Jurassic , the troughs of sub-basins filled allowing more of the Dingo sediment overflow into

SECTION 20

#1732801984274

1232-771: The Winning Group atop the Valanginian unconformity. The Winning Group consists of Muderong Shale, Windalia Radiolarite, and Gearle Siltstone. The Muderong Shale is actually considered a siltstone and was deposited in a low energy, offshore-marine environment. The deposition of these sediments makes a good seal for gas buildups in the Exmouth Plateau and the surrounding sub-basins of the Northern Carnvon Basin. The Windalia Radiolarite are primarily carbonate marine deposits commonly containing poorly preserved radiolarians and forminiferas. The Gearle Siltstone

1288-534: The central and southern margins of the Exmouth Plateau now known as the Gascoyne and Cuvier Abyssal Plains. As Australia continued to diverge away from the Antarctic land mass, it migrated in a northeastern direction and rotated counterclockwise to it present location, leaving the Exmouth Plateau along the continent's western margin. In the begin of the late Triassic , high volumes of sediments accumulate off of

1344-458: The continental break up at the southern margin of the Exmouth Plateau. This followed seafloor spreading at the Gascoyne and Cuvier Abyssal Plains and erosion at the surface of the Exmouth, Dampier and Barrow sub-basins and an unconformity at the top of the early to middle Valanginian . By the middle to late Valanginian and through the Cretaceous major transgression occurred with deposit of

1400-632: The contract for fabrication of the Skarv FPSO hull to Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea and the Turret contract to SBM. The FPSO has a length of 292 m, beam of 50.6 m and is 29 m deep, accommodates about 100 people in single cabins. The hull is delivered in January 2010. Exmouth Plateau The Exmouth Plateau is an elongate northeast striking extensional passive margin located in

1456-421: The design and construction of the FLNG facility, every element of a conventional LNG facility needs to fit into an area roughly one quarter the size, whilst maintaining appropriate levels of safety and giving increased flexibility to LNG production. Once a facility is in operation, ocean waves will present another challenge. LNG containment systems need to be capable of withstanding the damage that can occur when

1512-555: The distal margins of the region. This depositional sequence characterizes the Upper Dingo Claystones, which are found as thick proximal sequences in the Northern Carnarvon sub-basins and thinner distal sequences in the Exmouth Plateau. During the late Tithonian to early Valanginian there were major changes in depositional patterns, specifically associated with the Barrow Group. At this period of time there

1568-426: The distal portions of the Northern Carnarvon Basin furthest offshore. One of the primary gas source for the Exmouth Plateau and Northern Carnarvon Basin, the Mungaroo Formation contains thick successions of siltstone , sandstone , and coal . The Mungaroo Formation is capped by thin transgressive sequence of shallow marine claystone and limestone called the Brigadier Formation. This is a much thinner formation than

1624-523: The early 1970s, but it was only in the mid-1990s that significant research backed by experimental development began. In 1997, Mobil developed an FLNG production concept based on a large, square structure 540 by 540 feet (160 m × 160 m) with a moonpool in the center, commonly known as "The Doughnut". The Mobil proposal was sized to produce 6,000,000 tonnes (6,600,000 tons) LNG per year produced from 7,400,000 cubic metres (260,000,000 cu ft) per year of feed gas, with storage provided on

1680-572: The end of Anisian age when it transitioned in the Mungaroo Formation. The Mungaroo Formation is an intricate fluvial environment of meandering and braided stream deposits laid down in the Ladinian (~241 Mya) to Norian ages (~209 Mya) during the pre-rift active margin of the Northwestern Australian Shelf. It is one of the thickest formations in the region and becomes progressively thicker (approximately 3,000 m thick) in

1736-426: The expense of installing a pipeline. Once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location. New build FPSOs have a high initial cost (up to USD1 billion), but require limited maintenance. In addition, the ability to reposition/repurpose them means they can outlast the life of the production facility by decades. A cheaper alternative for smaller platforms is to convert an oil tanker or similar vessel at

Floating liquefied natural gas - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-667: The field and preparation for procurement and project management of the total field development. The hull is an Aker Solutions proprietary "Tentech975" design. BP also selected Aker Solutions to perform the detail engineering, procurement and construction management assistance (EPcma) for the Skarv field development. The EPcma contract covers detail engineering and procurement work for the FPSO topsides as well as construction management assistance to BP including hull and topside facilities. The production started in field in August 2011. BP awarded

1848-506: The field to the facility via risers . Upon reaching the facility, the gas will undergo processing to produce natural gas, LPG, and natural gas condensate. The processed feed gas will be treated to remove impurities and then liquefied through freezing before being stored in the hull of the vessel. Ocean-going carriers will then offload the liquefied natural gas, as well as other liquid by-products, for delivery to markets worldwide. Floating production storage and offloading The first of

1904-418: The future. The process plant on the vessel can handle about 19,000,000 cubic metres per day (670,000,000 cu ft/d) of gas and 13,500 cubic metres per day (480,000 cu ft/d) of oil. An 80 km gas export pipe ties into Åsgard transport system. Aker Solutions (formerly Aker Kvaerner) developed the front-end design for the floating production facility as well as the overall system design for

1960-655: The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry require relocation of conventional LNG processing units (or trains) into the sea to unlock remote, smaller gas fields that would not be economical to develop otherwise.Using these new types of FLNG facilities reduces capital expenses and environmental impacts. Unlike floating production storage and offloading units ( FPSOs ), FLNGs will also allow full scale deep processing, as an onshore LNG plant does but will reduce its footprint to 25%t. The first 3 FLNG's were constructed in 2016: Prelude FLNG ( Shell ), PFLNG1 and PFLNG2 ( Petronas ). Studies into offshore LNG production have been conducted since

2016-521: The lower crystalline crust and lithosphere experienced shear stress and thinning. The formation of the fault system closer to the coast caused the initial development of the Exmouth, Barrow, and Dampier sub-basins of the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Carbonate marine sediment, primarily marls, continued to be deposited at this time on the central and western portions of the plateau. Closer to the shoreline siliciclastic mud and silt were deposited from marine and deltaic environments. As extension continued in

2072-465: The mid to late Jurassic, multiple pull-apart basins and oblique right-lateral strike-slip faulting in the eastern margin of the Exmouth Plateau continued to dominate. The simple shear stress of the Exmouth detachment fault between the base of the upper crust, and the lower crust had been reduced in the east plateau. This reduction in simple shear was in part caused by the deformation that developed series negative flower structures and half-graben systems in

2128-468: The onboard regasification system provides natural gas exported to shore through risers and pipelines. As of 2022 , there are 33 FSRUs in the world, of which some relocate to higher-priced areas. Oil has been produced from offshore locations since the late 1940s. Originally, all oil platforms sat on the seabed, but as exploration moved to deeper waters and more distant locations in the 1970s, floating production systems came to be used. The first oil FPSO

2184-488: The overall structural morphology of the Exmouth Plateau had taken shape, aside from the post-breakup subsidence that occurred afterward from the Late Cretaceous to present day. Activity at the eastern Exmouth Plateau's detachment system had likely ceased which is reason for the completion of the plateau's morphology. The Locker Shale and Mungaroo formation are associated with the syn-rift and post-rift sequences of

2240-544: The profitability of the venture due to competition. In October 2016, Exmar NV performance tested a facility designed by Black & Veatch . The facility has a single liquefaction train that can produce 72 million cubic feet a day of LNG. On 4 June 2018, Golar LNG announced that their FLNG Hilli Episeyo had got a customer acceptance after successfully being tested in 16 days commissioning. FLNG Hilli Episeyo will serve Parenco Cameroon SA in Cameroon's water. FLNG Hilli Episeyo

2296-533: The project calls for a floating LNG production facility with a capacity of 2 million mt/year, with a final investment decision is expected in 2014 and startup planned for 2018. However, in June 2014, GDF Suez and Santos Limited made a decision to halt development. A part of the decision included the perception that long-term capabilities of North American gas fields due to hydraulic fracturing technologies and increasing Russian export capabilities would adversely affect

Floating liquefied natural gas - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-829: The sea's wave and current motions cause sloshing in the partly filled tanks. Product transfers also need to deal with the effects of winds, waves and currents in the open seas. Solutions to reduce the effect of motion and weather are addressed in the design, which must be capable of withstanding – and even reducing – the impact of waves. In this area, technological development has been mainly evolutionary rather than revolutionary, leveraging and adapting technologies that are currently applied to offshore oil production or onshore liquefaction . For example, traditional LNG loading arms have been adapted to enable LNG transfers in open water, and hose-based solutions for both side-by-side transfers in calmer seas and tandem transfers in rougher conditions are nearing fruition. Among fossil fuels , natural gas

2408-484: The shoreline of western Australia to the northern extend of the Exmouth Plateau by the Mungaroo Deltas. The Carnian (237-228 Ma) to Norian (228-209 Ma) aged fluviodeltaic sediments deposited were siliciclastic claystones and sandstones, and detritus which would late make up the coals found in Mungaroo Formation. As extensional rifting between Greater Indian and the Australian continued, magmatic intrusion along

2464-509: The structure for 250,000 cubic metres (66,000,000 US gal) of LNG and 103,000 cubic metres (27,000,000 US gal) of condensate . In 1999, a major study was commissioned as a joint project by Chevron Corporation and several other oil and gas companies. This was closely followed by the so-called 'Azure' research project, conducted by the EU and several oil and gas companies. Both projects contributed to steel and concrete hull design ,

2520-428: The tanker. Floating production, storage and offloading vessels are particularly effective in remote or deep water locations, where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the processing facility to an onshore terminal. This can provide an economically attractive solution for smaller oil fields, which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify

2576-591: The ultra-deep Santos Basin waters during 2009. A final investment decision was expected in 2011. As of November 2010, Japan's Inpex planned to use FLNGs to develop the Abadi gas field in the Masela block of the Timor Sea , with a final investment decision expected by the end of 2013. Late in 2010, Inpex deferred start-up by two years to 2018 and reduce its "first phase" capacity to 2.5 million tons per year (from

2632-434: The west plateau. By this time, the lithospheric thinning that had been initiated during the early Jurassic was now considerably thinner. At this period, a magmatic intrusion between the lower crystalline crest and the lithosphere been introduce, underplating this region. In Early Cretaceous , pure shear deformation at the ocean-continental boundary completed the final continental breakup and sea-floor spreading. By this time

2688-690: The western margin (now the Exmouth Plateau) with Greater India. The formation of the Exmouth's northern margin, the Argo Abyssal Plain, was not initiated until 155 million years ago when Australia broke apart from a continental fragment of the Burma Plate that's present location is argued to be subsumed under Asia. It wasn't until 20 million years later that the Greater Indian land mass broke from western Australia, forming

2744-582: The westernmost section of the Exmouth Plateau caused further rifting to the outer margins. By the end of the Late Triassic (209-201 Ma) tectonic activity had relatively slowed down and less deltaic sediments were deposited compared to the Carnian and Norian . More marine sedimentary deposit such as carbonates are found during this time period. During the early Jurassic, extension at the west Australian margin initiated simple shear mechanics creating

2800-484: The world's first FLNG facility, anchored 200 kilometres (120 mi) off the shore of Western Australia . In April 2010, Shell announced that it had been selected to develop the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea , making it Shell's second FLNG facility after Prelude . The project was scheduled to begin processing gas in 2016. In February 2011, Petronas awarded a FEED contract for an FLNG unit to

2856-618: Was awarded to SBM Offshore in July 2013. One of the world's largest FPSO is the Kizomba A , with a storage capacity of 2.2 million barrels (350,000 m ). Built at a cost of over US$ 800 million by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan , Korea , it is operated by Esso Exploration Angola ( ExxonMobil ). Located in 1200 meters (3,940 ft) of water at Deep water block 200 statute miles (320 km) offshore from Angola , Central Africa in

SECTION 50

#1732801984274

2912-623: Was built in 1977 on the Shell Castellon field, located in the Spanish Mediterranean. Today, over 270 vessels are deployed worldwide as oil FPSOs. On July 29, 2009, Shell and Samsung announced an agreement to build up to 10 LNG FPSOs, at the same Samsung Yard. Flex LNG appeared to construct smaller units. On May 20, 2011, Royal Dutch Shell announced the planned development of a 488 m long and 74 m wide floating liquefied natural gas facility (FLNG), called Prelude , which

2968-459: Was carried out at MMHE Shipyard Pasir Gudang in Malaysia , while the topsides were fabricated in modules at various international vendor locations. The FPSO has a disconnectable turret ( APL ) The vessel can disconnect in advance of hurricanes and reconnect with minimal down time. A contract for an FPSO to operate in even deeper waters (2,900 m) for Shell's Stones field in the US Gulf of Mexico

3024-490: Was carried out in 2007 by Keppel shipyard in Singapore. Oil produced from offshore production platforms can be transported to the mainland either by pipeline or by tanker. When a tanker is chosen to transport the oil, it is necessary to accumulate oil in some form of storage tank, such that the oil tanker is not continuously occupied during oil production, and is only needed once sufficient oil has been produced to fill

3080-411: Was converted into an FSO for offshore use before being scrapped. At the other end of the LNG logistics chain, where the natural gas is brought back to ambient temperature and pressure, a specially modified ship may also be used as a floating storage and regasification unit ( FSRU ). A LNG floating storage and regasification unit receives liquefied natural gas (LNG) from offloading LNG carriers , and

3136-576: Was large uplift of the Cape Range Fracture Zone that provided sediments from the Barrow Delta prograde northward past Barrow Island and across the Exmouth Plateau. The sediments of the Barrow Group are composed of interbedded shale and fluvial-deltiac sands that were extensively deposited into Exmouth and Barrow sub-basins. Eventually, deposition of the Barrow Delta's sediment ceased during the early or middle Valanginian due to

#273726