Source:www.forbes.com
SBM Offshore said it expects the first sale of its Liquified Natural Gas offshore production facility, called LNG FPSO, within 18 months, and also announced a development partnership with Germany's Linde AG.
SBM said it now considers the LNG FPSO ready for marketing and added that it can now establish the cost and delivery time of each unit.
Spokesman Sebastiaan de Ronde Bresser told Thomson Financial News that SBM is already in talks with potential customers and that 'every major oil company and anyone who wants LNG is a potential client'.
The LNG FPSO is an offshore liquified natural gas production facility that allows the development of stranded offshore gas fields as it produces, liquifies and stores gas.
SBM said capital expenditures on each unit is 2 bln usd.
To shorten the design and delivery cycle time of the LNG FPSO, SBM said it decided to form a partnership with Linde.
'Linde and SBM have complementary skills and relevant experience to produce a reliable LNG FPSO solution in the shortest possible time,' SBM said.
SBM also said it has entered into a deal with the IHI shipyard of Japan for the engineering and construction of LNG hulls.
IHI has been commissioned to design a 230,000 cubic metre multifunctional LNG ship hill.
Global marketing efforts for the LNG FPSO start today and the first unit is expected to commence production of gas in 2012.
Linde and SBM said they are both confident that there is a strong upcoming demand for this type of facility.
