MALAYSIA’s MISC Berhad is to provide Papua New Guinea’s first floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO), having won a 15-year contract with ExxonMobil.
The bareboat charter, operations and maintenance contract includes options for extensions up to a further 15 year.
The FSO will be employed as part of ExxonMobil PNG’s Kutubu Pipeline System of the US$19 billion PNG LNG project, an integrated development that includes gas production and processing facilities that extend from Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Gulf provinces to Port Moresby in Central Province.
ExxonMobil is the operator and largest shareholder (33.2%) of PNG LNG, alongside two PNG Government entities, Australia’s Santos and Japan’s ENEOS. Operations commenced in 2014 and it is estimated PNG LNG will produce more than 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
MISC is one of the world’s largest FPSO/FSO owners with 12 units currently in service worldwide and claims an exceptional record exceeding 95% average uptime. It says the new contract provides a strategic entry into PNG.
The FSO is expected to commence operations in the first half of 2028.