With power loss incident sorted out, giant Asian LNG project back in operation

Following a power loss incident, Malaysia LNG Group of Companies (MLNG), a subsidiary of the country’s energy giant Petronas, has brought back online its flagship LNG complex at Bintulu located on the island of Borneo in Sarawak’s central region, East Malaysia.

Before experiencing a power loss on May 10, 2024, the Petronas LNG Complex (PLC) in Bintulu was said to have been operating at optimal efficiency. The Malaysian energy giant confirmed on May 14 that the cause of the power loss was identified and start-up efforts to resume operations were in progress.

During the start-up process, MLNG was said to be continuously engaging partners and customers to mitigate the impact of the incident and fulfill its contractual commitments. According to Petronas, the Bintulu LNG facility resumed full operations on May 19, 2024, upon restoring affected facilities following a power loss incident last week.

The company explained that the start-up efforts began on May 11, 2024, with initial operations resuming on the same day. Based on the Malaysian player’s statement, the plant has resumed normal operations.

With almost 30 million mt/year of nameplate liquefaction capacity, Bintulu LNG is considered to be among the biggest LNG export facilities of its kind, entailing three trains at the MLNG Satu and MLNG Dua, along with two trains at MLNG Tiga and Train 9 project.

The restart of Bintulu LNG comes only days after Petronas announced a new hydrocarbon discovery at an exploration well in Block 52 offshore Suriname. Prior to this, the firm inked a production sharing contract (PSC) and prolonged an existing one off the coast of Indonesia to bring more hydrocarbons to the market.

In addition, the Malaysian player and its petroleum agreement contractors recorded 19 exploration discoveries and two exploration-appraisal successes last year in Malaysia.