Hyundai Heavy Unveils FLNG Concept Model

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, has just announced completion their Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Plant (FLNG) concept model. Designed in association with Germany’s industrial gases and engineering company Linde AG, the offshore facility will, theoretically, be able to produce, liquify and offload natural gas directly to an LNG carrier.

The Hyundai FLNG, as it is being called, has a potential annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons of LNG and can store about 193,800m3 of LNG with a compact size of 355m long, 70m wide and 35m tall.

Hyundai says that its Hyundai FLNG will take 25% less time to build compared to the onshore liquefaction and storage plants making it an attractive option for oil majors and global shipping companies looking to commercialize stranded gas in offshore fields.

“Hyundai FLNG has an efficient and economical production capability in that it just takes about 45 months to build. Considering the fact that the need for the development of stranded offshore gas fields is expected to be on the rise down the road, we will continue to step up our effort to win orders to build Hyundai FLNG,” said Mr. Kim Yoon-choon, senior vice president of Hyundai Heavy’s Offshore and Engineering Division who is the charge of the FLNG development project.

While no FLNG facilities currently exist, a number of projects are currently being considered or are already in development.

The world’s first FLNG development is Royal Dutch Shell’s ‘Prelude’ FLNG, to be located approximately 200 kilometers offshore Western Australia, with the capacity to produce 3.6 million tons of LNG per year. Shell’s Prelude is to be constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries Geoje shipyard and is due to be completed by around 2017. Once completed, the facility will be the largest floating object ever constructed.

Meanwhile, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., in a consortium with Technip, has also been awarded an FLNG development project from PETRONAS. That FLNG will have a capacity of 1 million tons per year.

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