Papua LNG downstream FEED deal awarded to JGC and Hyundai E&C

JGC Corporation, in partnership with Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C), has secured a front-end engineering design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) estimation contract for the downstream LNG facilities of the Papua LNG project.

The contract was awarded by ExxonMobil, which holds a 37.1% interest in Papua LNG, on behalf of its venture partners in the project. Other partners are TotalEnergies, which holds a 40.1% interest in the project and Santos with a 22.8% interest. The State of Papua New Guinea may exercise a back-in right of up to 22.5% interest at the final investment decision planned by the end of 2023 or early 2024.

Under the downstream FEED contract, JGC and Hyundai will design approximately four million tons per year of LNG liquefaction capacity adjacent to the existing PNG LNG processing facilities located 20 kilometres northwest of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, with the natural gas to be sourced from the Elk Antelope gas field.

The project also includes the use of two million tons per year of liquefaction capacity in the existing trains of PNG LNG.

The LNG facilities will adopt an “E-Drive” design, where electric motors instead of conventional gas turbines drive the natural gas compressors. This will help reduce CO2 emissions during the operations of the LNG facilities, JGC explained.

The construction and operation of the electrical liquefaction trains were delegated to ExxonMobil when partners recently launched a fully-integrated FEED for the project in Papua New Guinea.

The FEED contract for the project’s upstream production facilities was awarded to a consortium of Technip Energies and Clough last year.

The Papua LNG project is expected to have a liquefaction capacity of up to six million tonnes of LNG per annum with the first production anticipated by the end of 2027 or early 2028.