U.S. Moves to FEED on its First FLNG

Delfin LNG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairwood Peninsula Energy Corporation in the U.S., has awarded Bechtel a contract to perform front-end engineering and design for the first U.S.-based floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel to go into service at Port Delfin.

Port Delfin is a proposed deepwater port and floating LNG facility that will be located approximately 50 miles off the coastline of Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Delfin LNG’s project will be the first offshore floating natural gas liquefaction facility in the United States. Upon the final investment decision, Bechtel is expected to design, build and commission the FLNG.

Port Delfin will receive natural gas from the Delfin Offshore Pipeline. The FLNG will be able to disconnect from the port facility and move to protected waters during a hurricane.  The offshore location of the port will significantly reduce coastal LNG carrier traffic and minimize near-shore environmental impacts.

The Port Delfin project expected to be operational in 2019. It will consist of four main parts:

•    Newly built onshore gas compression on an existing site 
•    The use of existing 42-inch pipelines to transport natural gas nearly 50 miles offshore
•    The offshore port complex comprised of four moorings
•    Four FLNG vessels with an initial total export capacity of eight million metric tons per year, that could be expanded to 13 million metric tons per year.

The estimated total investment for the Delfin LNG deepwater port project is close to $7 billion. 

Bechtel is responsible for about a third of the world’s LNG liquefaction capacity under construction today, including four projects in Australia and the first LNG export facility in the United States, Cheniere’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction project.