Floating liquefied natural gas

Floating above an offshore natural gas field, the FLNG facility produces liquefied stores and transfers LNG (and potentially LPG and condensate) at sea before carriers ship it to markets.

[1] Unlike floating production storage and offloading units (FPSOs), FLNGs will also allow full scale deep processing, as an onshore LNG plant does[2] but will reduce its footprint to 25%t[citation needed].

[3] In 1997, Mobil developed an FLNG production concept based on a large, square structure 540 by 540 feet (160 m × 160 m) with a moonpool in the center,[4] commonly known as "The Doughnut".

[8] In February 2011, Petronas awarded a FEED contract for an FLNG unit to a consortium of Technip and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering[12] for a facility in Malaysia.

[14][15] Petrobras invited three consortiums to submit proposals for engineering, procurement and construction contracts for FLNG plants in the ultra-deep Santos Basin waters during 2009.

[19] According to a presentation given by their engineers at GASTECH 2011, ConocoPhillips aimed to implement a facility by 2016–19, and had completed the quantitative risk analysis of a design that would undergo pre-FEED study during the remainder of 2011.

The first phase of the project calls for a floating LNG production facility with a capacity of 2 million mt/year[clarification needed], with a final investment decision is expected in 2014 and startup planned for 2018.

[22] On 4 June 2018, Golar LNG announced that their FLNG Hilli Episeyo had got a customer acceptance after successfully being tested in 16 days commissioning.

[26] LNG containment systems need to be capable of withstanding the damage that can occur when the sea's wave and current motions cause sloshing in the partly filled tanks.

[29] It may be able to meet some of the world's energy needs by realizing the potential of otherwise unviable gas reserves (several of which can be found offshore North West Australia).