Malaysian state oil firm Petronas has awarded the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) portion of its first commercial floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to a consortium comprising Technip SA and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd.

Petronas said yesterday it has approved plans to build a floating LNG plant offshore in Sarawak state, on Borneo island, and expected the facility to be ready for start-up by the end of 2015.

“It will be moored about 180 kilometres off the coast of Bintulu, Sarawak, and is designed to produce 1.2 million tonnes a year of LNG,” Petronas said in a statement today.

Once on stream, Petronas said the facility will boost Malaysia’s total LNG production capacity to 26.9 million tonnes a year from 25.7 million currently.

Petronas’ main competitor in the race to bring the first floating LNG plant online is oil major Royal Dutch Shell, which approved its Prelude LNG floating plant last year and has said it intends to bring the plant online by 2017.

- Reuters