Malaysia’s Petronas has seen the first of several planned floating LNG hulls launched in South Korea, marking the state company’s growing presence in the liquid gas market.

The operator launched the first FLNG hull, PFLNG 1, at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine and Engineering in Okpo, South Korea, earlier this month. The unit is due to be completed in fourth-quarter 2015.

The 365 m (11,97 ft) long hull was launched 10 months after first steel was cut in June 2013, with the facility to eventually be moored on the Kanowit gas field 180 km (112 miles) offshore Sarawak. The FLNG unit will produce up to 1.2 MMtonnes of LNG per year.

Petronas claims that the unit will be the first floating LNG facility in operation, beating other major contenders such as Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility.

In February, Petronas issued a final investment decision for a second FLNG unit (PFLNG 2) and issued a letter of award for an EPCIC (engineering, procurement, construction installation and commissioning) contract to a consortium comprising JGC Corp. and Samsung Heavy Industries (see DI, 24 February 2014, page 4).

That award followed two FEED studies awarded in 2012 to two groups – one comprising Modec Inc, CB&I and Toyo Engineering Corp., and a second involving JGC and Samsung. This second FLNG facility is destined for the Rotan gas field in deepwater Block H offshore Sabah and will be fitted out with processing capacity to produce 1.5 MMtpa of LNG. Startup is pencilled in for early 2018.