Bill Sember, ABS Vice President of Global Gas Development has predicted rapid growth in new FLNG projects once initial projects are proven.
Sember is scheduled to chair the technical session on Floating LNG at Gastech 2012 in London, with panel speakers from Shell Upstream International, Worley Parsons and the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN)
Among Sember’s comments at a session he chaired at the 2011 Gastech Conference in Amsterdam was a forecast that there would be a rapid escalation in FLNG activity and a prediction that the industry would see an FLNG vessel contracted by the end of the year.
That prediction was proven correct in the form of Shell’s Prelude FLNG unit, which will work in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia. Prelude will be the largest vessel built to date at 488 m by 74 m (1,600 ft by 243 ft) and 600,000 dwt. The Prelude project received environmental approval in late 2010 and has a target production start date of 2016. This project will be followed closely by several others offshore Indonesia and Malaysia.
“FLNG is a relatively new development, and I think it is one of the most exciting areas of LNG. FLNG certainly is an area ABS and I have been involved with since the beginning,” Sember says. “My ‘prediction’ for 2012 is that once these facilities have proven themselves, there will be many more deployed around the world in remote areas and in places where it is impractical or cost prohibitive to build onshore processing facilities.”
Behind this increase in development lies the growing demand for gas globally as importer countries seek to balance their energy mix and produce cleaner energy.
An International Energy Agency (IEA) estimate published this year lists recoverable conventional gas resources at around 400 trillion cubic meters. Recoverable unconventional resources are of a similar size. Altogether, this would last approximately 250 years, based on current rates of gas consumption, and those rates are projected to grow. IEA analysts believe natural gas will play a much greater role in the global energy mix in the future, predicting global gas usage will rise by more than 50 percent from 2010 levels and account for more than one-quarter of global energy demand by 2035.
“You’ve heard this era referred to as the Golden Age of Gas. While on the face of things, this might sound like an exaggeration, I believe it is appropriate,” Sember says. “Supplies are enormous, and global demand is growing. Before long, gas will compete with oil in terms of global demand and usage. The potential for natural gas development presents us with a world of opportunity, and the use of FLNG will be vital to help meet a portion of that demand.”