US giant gets nod for FLNG

[Stavros]

If XOM is excited about a ginormous ( translation = expensive beyond belief  FLNG off the coast of Australia then for sure they want to start construction of PNG LNG Train #3 ASAP. Brownfield expansion of PNG LNG is far and away more lucrative than this project.

Please send the Cocktail Party invites to Peter O'Neill, William Duma, Havila Kavo and others today. RSVP by December 1. Party on Friday December 13, a lucky day for IOC shareholders.

US giant gets nod for FLNG

By Russell Searancke

 22 November 2013 00:00 GMT

ExxonMobil has been granted environmental approval by the Australian government for the Scarborough floating liquefied natural gas project, writes Russell Searancke.

The Department of Environment attached a number of conditions to the approval that related predominantly to the protection of certain marine species, and marine areas.

It is a major hurdle to clear for the project, and an ExxonMobil spokesman said the company welcomed the environmental acceptance.

“Environmental approval is another step forward in the ongoing appraisal of the project.”

ExxonMobil lodged its application with the Department of Environment in April this year, and received approval on 8 November.

By contrast, Shell’s Prelude FLNG project took more than two years to gain approval.

The proposed Scarborough FLNG vessel will be about 495 metres long, 75 metres wide and will process a total of between 6 million tonnes per annum and 7 million tpa of LNG from five processing trains.

A joint venture between Chiyoda and Saipem is poised to capture the front-end engineering and design contract for the project, having also been the pre-FEED contractor.

ExxonMobil and BHP Billiton are 50:50 partners in the Scarborough project.