By an OGJ correspondent
NICOSIA, May 7 -- Malaysian officials Thursday are slated to officially open the $4.36 billion Petroliam Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, marking the site's third LNG plant.
Petronas, Malaysia's state oil company, hired a consortium led by the US-based Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg Brown & Root and Japanese-based JCG Corp. tu build the new facility, Malaysia LNG Tiga Sdn. (MLNG Tiga), and to rejuvenate and revamp MLNG existing facilities.
The MLNG Tiga included design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of two LNG trains and offsite facilities to be added to the existing six-train facilities of Malaysia LNG Sdn. Bhd. (MLNG) and Malaysia Dua Sdn. Bhd. (MLNG Dua).
MLNG Tiga, scheduled to begin full operation in October, will make the Bintulu LNG complex the world's single largest LNG production facility with a combined capacity of about 23 million tonnes/year (mty) (OGJ Online, May 02, 2001).
Malaysia recently signed new agreements with Japanese firms for LNG output from Bintulu. In March, Petronas, through MLNG and MLNG Tiga, signed two separate sale and purchase agreements worth more than $20 billion to supply LNG to Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. and Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd.
The LNG for both contracts will be delivered from Bintulu to the receiving terminals of Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Up to 5.6 mty of LNG will be supplied by LNG tankers owned by Malaysia International Shipping Corp Bhd (MISC), a subsidiary of Petronas, while tankers owned by Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas will transport the balance of up to 1.8 mty of LNG.
MISC expects four LNG tankers under construction in Japan to be delivered between September 2003 and April 2005. They will bring MISC's LNG carrier fleet to 19.