TotalEnergies has just chosen the Marsa LNG Terminal Contractor who will be responsible for the establishment of a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering and export terminal that will be located in the northern city of Oman, Sohar.
The French company Technip Energies has been selected to conduct the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works on the LNG terminal project. Technip Energies received the letter of intent from TotalEnergies earlier in the month of January. The two companies are yet to meet and decide on the final investment decision and the contract to be awarded regarding the project.
Cost of the Project Awarded for Marsa LNG Terminal Contractor
The project shall cost a total of $1 billion. TotalEnergies is one leading joint venture named Marsa LNG, which is the main developer of the Sohar LNG terminal project. Marsa LNG was founded and formed in the year 2021 through an agreement that was reached between TotalEnergies and the state energy holding company of the sultanate OQ, with the involved partners owning 80% and 20% stakes respectively.
Marsa LNG is going to develop one integrated facility that will consist of upstream units that will be drawing natural gas feed-stock from the hydrocarbon concessions of TotalEnegies in the sultanate; specifically from the Block 10 and Block 11. There will also be the establishment of an LNG bunkering unit and storage unit that will be located in the port of Sohar. Lastly, a solar photovoltaic (PV) plant will be set up so in order to power the LNG terminal.
Capacity of the Marsa LNG Terminal
The Marsa LNG terminal is also going to have one train that will possess the capacity of processing approximately 1 million tons of natural gas into liquefied natural gas annually. This bunkering terminal is expected to mainly supply to vessels LNG as marine fuel.
In the month of June last year, TotalEnergies had requested the contractors who would be taking part in the feed-to-EPC competition of the Marsa LNG terminal project to make submissions of their revised proposals for the front-end engineering works and design in regards to the number of changes that were made on the scope of the scheme. These three contractors managed to submit their proposals as part of the feed-to-EPC competition of the terminal of the project:
- JGC Corporation from Japan
- McDermott from USA
- Technip Energies from France
These bidders have been compensated by TotalEnergies for the submission of their feeds. The validity of the fresh proposals that were submitted by the contractors is until the end of the month of February.
What is a Feed-to-EPC
A feed-to EPC contest model involves a situation whereby the shortlisted contractors of a project make thorough preparations for it. The one who owns the project will then conduct thorough evaluation of the submitted feeds and eventually award the contract to the contractor with the most efficient and competitive feed proposal to conduct the EPC works of the project at hand.
The EPC contest of the Marsa LNG project was kicked off in May 2019. The operator of the project had been on course to reach the FID on the terminal project by the time 2022 ended.
The size and scope of the terminal project was changed in the year 2023 by TotalEnergies. Regarding the modifications on the scope of work, the contractors also initiated the updates of their respective feed proposals for the Marsa LNG Project. According to the revised timeline of the project, the engineering, procurement, and construction works of the project are set to begin in the first quarter of 2024.
Scope of the Project
The scope of the work on the Marsa LNG project is broadly categorized into 4 sections:
- The process structures which entail the gas inlet station unit, liquefaction unit, and the refrigerant storage unit i.e. if applicable
- The utilities which comprises of importing power from the national grid, a fuel gas system, installation of an air cooling system , a steam system, both the instrument and plant air systems, the nitrogen recovery unit and, a fire water system
- The installation of the offsite and common facilities which include the flare vent, both relief and blowdown, the storage and loading unit of the LNG, the rundown line of the LNG, LNG bunkering amenities, and the boil-off gas handling
- Establishment of the support buildings which will include the main control building, administration block, an LNG laboratory, warehouse, a number of workshops etc.
The main changes on the Marsa LNG project include shifting of the location of the site to at least 1 kilometer nearer the Port of Sohar Facility in order to enable easier and seamless of both refueling and exporting activities that will be taking place. Another change was the introduction of the idea of constructing a solar photovoltaic farm that would produce clean energy to solely power the LNG terminal.
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