Saipem-led consortium confirms start-up of FEED battle for $20 billion LNG project in Asia

August 12, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Italy’s engineering, drilling, and construction services giant Saipem has corroborated its involvement in a competitive dual front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) module destined for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia’s Masela block, Asia Pacific.

Shortly after Inpex Masela, a subsidiary of Japan’s Inpex, revealed FPSO contract packages for the FEED work related to the Abadi LNG project in the Masela block, embarking on a dual FEED method involving two contractor consortia working in parallel but separately to ensure a competitive environment, Saipem confirmed a FEED contract award for the FPSO module.

The Italian player shed more light on its role, through its subsidiary PT Saipem Indonesia, in spearheading the consortium, which also includes PT Tripatra Engineers & Constructors, PT Tripatra Engineering, and PT McDermott Indonesia, following a formal notification of the FEED award.

The other consortium is made up of Technip Engineering Indonesia as the lead contractor, with Technip Indonesia and JGC Indonesia as its consortium partners. Inpex intends to use the same method for its onshore LNG plant (OLNG) contract package.

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Project & Tenders

Saipem underlines that the FEED contract, granted following a technical and commercial pre-selection process, now enters a competitive dual FEED phase, where two separate consortia will propose independent technical solutions. As a result, the firm and its consortium partners will undertake the review and specification definition of the offshore production facilities.

According to the Italian giant, the consortium delivering the most technically and commercially compelling FEED proposal will be selected to execute the subsequent engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) phase.

The company claims that all engineering packages, including FPSO, OLNG, subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF), and gas export pipeline (GEP), are designed to integrate carbon capture and storage (CCS) components.

Saipem elaborated: “The award of the dual FEED contract by Inpex is strategically relevant for Saipem: it reinforces the company’s recognized global leadership in FLNG/FPSO projects and low-carbon and CCUS engineering, as demonstrated by prior EPCI experience in Indonesia and elsewhere.

“Moreover, it offers a tangible opportunity to extend Saipem’s participation through the EPC stage, should the FEED solution proposed by the consortium including Saipem prove to be superior.”

Inpex Masela is the operator of the Abadi LNG project with a 65% interest. The firm’s partners are Pertamina (20%) and Petronas (15%), following Shell’s exit as the oil major opted to sell its stake in 2023.

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Business & Finance

After the project’s original development plan was approved in 2019, Inpex submitted a revised one with a CCS component in April 2023, which was green-lighted in December 2023. The 20 billion Abadi LNG project envisions an annual natural gas production capacity of 10.5 million tons of gas equivalent.

Roughly 9.5 million tons of this is expected to be LNG, representing over 10% of Japan’s annual LNG imports, with the remainder delivered via pipeline for domestic use. The condensate production is estimated to reach up to 35,000 barrels per day.