2022-04-16 08:13
publication
2022-04-16 08:13
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Japanese companies JGC and Kawasaki Kisen will use elements of decommissioned methane carriers – LNG carriers – to build floating natural gas liquefaction plants. As a result, the cost of building a condensing installation is to drop by 30 percent.
As both companies informed, it is primarily about reusing the spherical tanks of methane carriers. According to JGC, only a few Korean manufacturers can produce such tanks, and these are extremely expensive items that take a long time to deliver. Hence the idea of recovering them from the withdrawn methane carriers. The company is currently building a floating LNG plant for Malaysia and estimates the cost of such a unit at $ 800 million. According to JGC’s estimates, the cost of such a unit would drop by almost a third thanks to the use of tanks.
According to Kawasaki Kisen, there are currently around 120 methane carriers in the world with spherical tanks, of which around 50 will soon be withdrawn from the line.
As both companies have informed, they already have the American Bureau of Shipping pre-certified for their technology, which brings it closer to use in practice. The Japanese believe that floating liquefied gas plants allow the use of deposits that are not connected by gas pipelines to large consumption centers, and so far it is not possible to export large amounts of gas from them.
Demand for liquefied gas is growing, especially due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the search for alternatives to Russian gas, hence the Japanese hope that they will win orders for their installations. As potential recipients, they mainly indicate African countries that have recognized gas deposits and which, thanks to the opportunities offered by the production of LNG, could enter the global market with their supplies.
According to the data of the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2020 almost 250 billion cubic meters were mined in Africa. gas. Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Cameroon have operational LNG liquefaction terminals. In total, they have the production capacity of 75 million tons of LNG, which corresponds to about 100 billion cubic meters. gas per year. Construction of condensing terminals is ongoing in Mauritania, Djibouti and Mozambique. However, a number of African countries have plans for further installations. They are planned by Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Mauritania, Djibouti, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The planned installations would have a production capacity of over 50 million tons per year (PAP)
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