KL awards LNG contract

KL awards LNG contract

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A consortium of Malaysian, Japanese and American companies won a tender Friday to build a 1.5 billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the eastern state of Sarawak.

The project will be built on a 130-acre (52 hectare) site next to the two existing LNG plants in the town of Bintulu, state oil firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) said in a statement.

The three plants will make Bintulu the world's single largest LNG complex with a combined production capacity of about 23 million tons a year, Petronas said.

It said its subsidiary MLNG Tiga Bhd awarded the contract to a consortium including JGC Corporation from Japan and the US-based Kellogg Brown et Root Inc.

Malaysia's Sime Engineering Sdn Bhd, Kellogg (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and JGC (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd are also in the consortium, Petronas said.

The consortium will design, procure, build and commission the plant which will house two liquefaction trains each capable of producing 3.8 million tons of LNG annually.

The first is scheduled for completion by the end of 2002 and the second in the third quarter of the following year.

MLNG Tiga is 60 percent owned by Petronas, with the remaining 40 percent equally shared between Shell Gas B.V., Nippon Oil LNG (Netherlands) B.V., Occidental LNG (Malaysia) Ltd and the Sarawak state government.