Offshore staff
RIO DE JANIERO -- Petrobras, BG Group, Repsol, and Galp Energia, partners in the joint venture to build an onboard natural gas liquefaction unit (ONGU) for Brazil’s pre-salt area, have signed agreements with tender bidders to develop front-end engineering and design for the liquefaction unit.
The winners were Saipem and the SBM/Chiyoda and Technip/JGC/Modec consortia. The tender, carried out in the international invitation mode, was launched last August with offers delivered in October.
The hired groups have until Dec. 16, 2010 to develop the FEEDs. The projects will be carried out in parallel.
A decision will be made in 2011 regarding the best option to outflow the gas from the Santos basin's pre-salt pole. It will be based on the technical and economic feasibility analysis of the FEEDs and of other alternative solutions, such as installing submarine gas pipelines, the companies says.
Once the deployment of an onboard liquefaction unit is selected, a new tender will be opened to pick the company that will be in charge of building and operating the project.
The unit will be installed near the FPSOs, and will receive, process, and liquefy up to 14 MMcm/d of associated gas.
The ONGU will also store and transfer processed products (LNG, propane, and butane) to vessels, which, in turn, will then transport it to the consumer market. In the case of LNG, the product will be delivered to regasification terminals, where the natural gas is transformed from the liquid to the gaseous state and, finally, injected into the gas pipeline network. In Brazil, Petrobras' LNG regasification terminals are installed in Pecém and in the Guanabara Bay.
The project is scheduled for completion in July 2015.
12/18/2009
