Höegh LNG and CB&I Lummus in LNG FPSO partnership

Höegh LNG and CB&I Lummus have concluded a strategic and exclusive agreement for the next phase of Höegh LNG’s FPSO project. The agreement formally ties the parties for a period of 2 years, where Höegh LNG will have exclusive rights to CB&I Lummus’ patented “Niche LNG” liquefaction technology for its LNG FPSO projects. CB&I Lummus will provide the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED), for the topsides, i.e. liquefaction and gas processing for the project.

In September 2007 Höegh LNG announced that it started the engineering and design for its first LNG FPSO Unit, with the objective to design and construct the worlds’ first LNG FPSO. “Our strategy is to develop Höegh LNG’s business model from pure LNG transportation into offering also solutions for LNG production and floating regasification terminals”, says Sveinung St?hle, President and CEO of Höegh LNG AS. “With the LNG FPSO in place, Höegh LNG can offer a complete offshore LNG supply chain. We recognized from the start that building an LNG FPSO is a very complex and challenging project, quite different from LNG carriers or even LNG re-gas vessels, and therefore choosing the right partners and the right technology are critical success factors,” says Sveinung J. Stohle, President of Höegh LNG Ltd.

“In initiating this partnership with CB&I we have laid the fundament for completing the most critical part of our LNG FPSO project, and this is of course a confirmation that we are very happy with the work done by CB&I for the pre-FEED which we started almost 6 months ago and which will be concluded in a few weeks. This agreement further confirms our ambition to not build only one of these units, but a whole series.”

The Höegh LNG FPSO design consists of a ship shaped offshore classed structure based on an existing LNG ship specification, with the capacity to treat and liquefy a well stream of approx 3.0 billion cubic metres per year, which will give an annual production of between 1.6-2.0 million tons of LNG and approx 0.4 million tons of LPG, depending on the specification of the gas stream.

The LNG FPSO will have storage capacity of around 180 000 cubic metres of LNG and 30 000 cubic metres of LPG, and the first delivery is stipulated for mid 2011.