Yards and their contractor partners have until April 30 to complete front-end engineering and design (FEED) bids for the LNG floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for Inpex’s Abadi LNG project off Indonesia.
Three pairings - Hyundai Heavy Industries in partnership with Saipem, Chiyoda and SBM, Samsung Heavy Industries paired with contractors JGC and Technip and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding with Foster Wheeler and a local Indonesian partner - are prequalified for the business.
According to the project schedule, Inpex plans to select two consortia to commence FEED for a 2.5-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) floater from mid-2012. This work is expected to take around 13 months to complete.
Yards and contractors are also gearing up to compete for the FEED job on a second FLNG unit for Malaysian giant Petronas.
Four consortia are understood to have expressed interest in the business - Samsung and JGC, a tie-up of Hyundai and Technip, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in partnership with Chiyoda and Saipem and a mystery fourth grouping that has yet to be identified.
A tender is expected to be issued by the end of this month. The 1.5-mtpa floater has been linked to possible production from the Murphy Oil-operated Rotan field. It is scheduled to be in operation by 2016.