Sembcorp Marine Acquires Majority Stake in Floating LNG Technology
Sembcorp Marine has acquired an additional 44 percent equity stake in Gravifloat for $38 million. This will bring the company’s stake in Gravifloat to 56 percent.
Under the agreement, the Company will eventually increase its stake by a further 44 percent to 100 percent through an equity purchase at the same price.
Gravifloat designs and holds patents for a suite of re-deployable, modularized solutions based on its unique near-shore floating yet gravity-based LNG terminal solutions. From initial design, through construction and delivery, to installation and commissioning, Gravifloat offers customers across the LNG value chain a compelling alternative to existing onshore and floating LNG facilities.
The Gravifloat designed facilities are steel-based modularized structures that offer the advantages of a floating solution, with the floatable modules to be fully constructed and tested at a shipyard leveraging their expertise, fabrication methodology and infrastructure to efficiently construct the facility.
The company’s GF-Design Platform can integrate with a variety of standard topsides to form a unit. Each unit can be operated as a standalone platform or connected with other units, depending on the type of operation and scale required. Various operations can be achieved including:
• GF-SRU – a storage and regasification unit
• GF-Power – a small-scale LNG power plant with CCGT plants, with integrated storage, regas and terminal functions
• GF-LNG – integrated LNG terminals, and liquefaction plant and LNG export terminal
• GF-Bunkering Terminal – storage for redistribution and/or bunkering
Sembcorp Marine’s President & CEO Wong Weng Sun said: “Our increased stake in Gravifloat underlines our confidence in Gravifloat designs to provide globally competitive solutions for our customers. It also reflects our strategy to broaden and deepen the group’s range of proprietary designs and solutions to develop new state-of-the-art facilities for the fast evolving LNG and LPG industries.”
Gravifloat terminals offer a more cost-competitive solution compared with FSRUs (floating, storage and regasification units), FLNG and land terminals, says Sembcorp Marine, and can be designed for both liquefaction and receiving terminal services.
The company had announced its initial 12 percent acquisition in Gravifloat in June 2014.
