Offshore staff
MUNICH, Germany --The Linde Group has formed a global alliance with Single Buoying Mooring Inc. to develop and market FPSOs based on Linde's proprietary natural gas liquefaction technology.
The FPSO is designed for any conventional natural gas composition and aims at offshore natural gas fields with recoverable reserves of 1 tcf, Linde says.
Under the global alliance, Linde will contribute the FPSO topsides, including gas pretreatment, C3+ fractionation and natural gas liquefaction based on the company's proprietary multi-stage-mixed-refrigerant process. SBM will contribute, among other things, marine technology, including the hull and LNG storage tank system, power generation system, mooring system, cryogenic offloading systems, and FPSO operational experience.
The design also incorporates Linde's experience with Europe's first base load LNG plant for Statoil's Snøhvit project. Linde erected the plant on Melkøya island in the Norwegian Arctic Circle.
"The importance of LNG in the global energy markets is continuously growing and The Linde Group is poised to play a major role along the entire value chain," says Aldo Belloni, member of the Linde executive board. "The newly formed global alliance with SBM is targeting the market of floating LNG facilities, which shall enable the exploitation of offshore fields, either too remote or too small for a conventional base-load approach."
Linde and SBM intend to sell LNG-FPSOs as turnkey projects or to offer liquefaction services in a build-own-operate model to the LNG industry.
The first unit is expected to begin LNG production in 2012.
9/21/2007
