AsianOil: Petronas, Sabah sign MoU on nearshore FLNG development

Petronas and Sabah Oil & Gas Development Corp. (SOGDC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the development of a nearshore floating LNG (FLNG) facility in the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo.
Under the MoU, SOGDC will support Petronas in securing all necessary approvals, permits and other requirements as they work to realise the project, according to local media.
SOGDC is wholly owned by the Sabah state government and the MoU represents its latest step in collaboration with Petronas to drive natural gas development in the state. The FLNG project, known as ZLNG, is one of three major investment opportunities identified by the Sabah government and Petronas in the Sabah Gas Masterplan, which they jointly launched at the start of this year.
The facility would have a capacity of at least 2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG and officials have said it would cost MYR8.8bn ($2.0bn) to develop. It would be located in the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park (SOGIP).
The MoU builds on two front-end engineering and design (FEED) contracts that Petronas awarded to a consortium of JGC and Samsung Heavy Industries and to Saipem in December as part of a FEED design competition for the project. The FEED design competition has a duration of 10 months, with Petronas targeting a final investment decision (FID) on the FLNG facility at the end of 2022.
If an FID is reached, the winning FEED contractor will be rolled over to the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) phase. The terminal would then be ready for start-up by the end of 2026, according to a previous announcement by Petronas.