Malaysian national oil company (NOC) Petronas is nearing completion of its first offshore unit, the PFLNG 1 (SEN, 31/19) facility, which is due onstream in early 2016.

At the same time, the NOC’s second and larger unit—PFLNG 2— being done in partnership with Murphy Oil of the U.S. is now well underway in terms of its construction.

SEN understands that Petronas already has been approached by other operators to potentially lease them to the other companies to help unlock their own stranded gas resources in the region, not only just within Malaysia’s waters.

PFLNG 1 (to be named the PFLNG Satu) will be moored over the Kanowit gas field 180 km offshore Sarawak in 1,150 m of water and has been designed to produce up to 1.2 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG as part of the wider Kumang Cluster Development Phase 1.

Scheduled for commercial startup early in 2016, the 365 m long PFLNG 1 is apparently on time to start operations in first-quarter 2016 and remains on budget.

It is being built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard in Okpo, South Korea.

The facility consists of 22 modular systems including gas treating, liquefaction, storage and offloading systems, with the liquefaction system to convert the gas to liquid at a temperature of -162 C (which reduces the volume of the gas by 600 times).

The floating liquefaction vessel will be powered by 100 MW of electricity using natural gas as the source, and weigh in at 132,000 tonnes in total.

According to Petronas, it also has been careful to put in place a “more robust than usual” operational system so it will need less frequent maintenance than what is normally expected for an onshore plant; the company already has eight existing onshore LNG trains.

Other innovations have included the use of nitrogen as a refrigerant, which Technip said gives easier operability and is a world-first for this capacity.

PFLNG 2, meanwhile, is destined to be commissioned during 2018 and initially employed and centered on the deepwater Rotan gas field in Murphy-operated Block H, 130 km offshore Sabah. It also is planned to receive gas in later phases from at least four other satellites in the block—Alum, Bemban, Buluh and the recently revealed 5.6 Bcm Permai Field. Murphy holds a 56% interest in Block H with Petronas owning the remainder.

Petronas and Murphy recently ticked off a key milestone in the latter project’s progress with the official steel cutting taking place at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje Island, South Korea.

SHI is responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the unit along with its consortium partners JGC Corp. and JGC (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

SHI said the keel laying ceremony for the vessel is on schedule for this December. The hull is expected to be launched in April 2016 and integration works are planned to get underway by July of that year. The American Bureau of Shipping will be providing classification and statutory certification services for the vessel.

The hull and topsides of the PFLNG 2, which has a design capacity of 1.5 mtpa, will weigh 152,000 tonnes in total. The facility, which will be operated by Petronas, is expected to achieve a 10-year peak gas rate of about 5.8 MMcm/d gross, according to partner Murphy.

Petronas’ expectation is that the PFLNG 2 will monetize a number of stranded gas fields when it is commissioned in 2018.

Once onstream, the two FLNG plants will raise Malaysia’s total LNG production to an estimated 28.9 million mt/year.

The nonpropelled unit will, like its smaller sister, be moored using an external turret and be designed to operate for 20 years without drydocking.