arnim, vielen dank for posting the article about the joint venure between STP and Bluesky FLNG. The following in the list of objectives caught my eye:
- Manage and implement the technology solution for FLNG Bluesky gas extraction;
- Provide FLNG solution Bluesky Corporation to neighboring countries, including the joint development zone Nigeria - S. Tome and Principe Exclusive Economic Zone and Sao Tome and Principe;
- Research, drilling and installation of underwater pipelines, including the services of expert in the field of research and drilling;
The writer of the article makes it sound as though Bluesky is some fly-by-night company; but research shows that is not the case at all.
Bluesky FLNG Corporation is a new arm of Taiwanese shipping magnate Nobu Su, the CEO of family-owned Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) shipping company. (He actually sent a ship to help out with the BP oil spill in the GOM.)
According to this article, TMT is making no small investment in this FLNG venture:
Taiwan’s shipping firm TMT invests $2bn-4bn in LNG business
ICIS News : 22-May-12 07:20
By Pearl Bantillo
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwanese shipowner TMT is investing $2bn-4bn (€1.6bn-3.1bn) in building a complete liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain solution that is expected to come on stream in 2015, banking on the strength of global energy demand, the company’s top executive said on Tuesday.
The investment covers the re-designing of one of its huge vessels into a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, which will extract natural gas from the ocean and convert it into liquid, for shipping out to customers in Asia, TMT CEO Nobu Su said in an interview with ICIS.
“We try to offer solutions – from the ocean to the market,” said Su.
TMT’s FPSO is expected to have the capacity to process 1m-1.5m tonnes of natural gas, he said.
The company’s investment would also cover the building of four to six LNG vessels that would support the FPSO in transporting the liquefied gas to its end-market and convert it back into gas form via a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).
“Our solution is gas to gas. Normally you have somebody who either transporting LNG, sell LNG, or who can produce gas. But nobody is in the full chain like us,” said Subroto Banerji, who is in charge of the FLNG project under TMT.
TMT’s first FPSO will be deployed offshore in west Africa, in the natural resource-rich Gulf of Guinea, near the island country of Sao Tomei & Principe.
The company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the island republic in March this year to collaborate and tap into the country’s natural energy resources.
Su, who is currently in Singapore, said TMT is in talks with Singapore’s Keppel Corp as a potential long-term buyer of LNG, and possibly a strategic investor in the project.
The company currently has no partner in its LNG project, Su said.
Once its FPSO unit becomes operational in 2015, the shipping firm is looking at serving the south and southeast Asian markets from its strategic location in west Africa, Su said.
“Since we are going to do it from west Africa, I think the biggest market would be, logically, India, it has a huge population and it is closer,” said Su, also citing Indonesia and Singapore as potential markets.
He estimates global LNG demand to grow at an annual rate 20%, but this is largely dependent on the supply situation. Current world demand for LNG is currently pegged at 280m tonnes/year, Su said.
TMT has a fleet of about 45 vessels, eight of which are called whales that can be converted into FPSO units.
“Basically, the [FPSO] design, we can copy to eight ships,” the TMT CEO said.
“If the demand is there, we can put eight units and get our capacity to 12m tonnes,” said Banerji.
Depending on the success of this venture, the company may consider listing its business unit Bluesky FLNG Corp, which is in charge of the LNG project, Su said.
The Taiwanese shipping firm generates an annual revenue of about $1bn, according to So.
And here's another article that puts TMT and STP together:
Nobu to convert VLOO to FLNG
2012-03-27 09:01:50
Creative Taiwanese shipowner Nobu Su expects to put one of his eight very large ore oilers (VLOOs) into Hyundai Heavy Industries later this year for conversion into a floating liquefaction (FLNG) unit; LNG-FPSO.
Recently Nobu’s Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Sao Tome & Principe off Central Africa to develop a FLNG project using flare gas from oil-drilling operations.
Nobu plans to create its Octopus 8 FLNG unit in a reverse-engineering job on his 319,869-dwt VLOOs, which he has dubbed “Whales”, at a cost of over $1bn.
Engineers Black & Veatch and membrane containment-system designer GTT have been working on the design.
The TMT chief says the concept design for what would be a 1.5-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) unit is virtually complete, leaving the way open for field-specific work to begin.
The result would be a five-tank unit with a turret mooring system capable of achieving speeds of 17 knots, which Nobu claims will offer great stability. He estimates construction work will take around two years.
He is confident that Octopus 8 will be the first FLNG unit in operation.
“We already have the hull so we are doing the interior design, whereas others are building from scratch,” he said. He acknowledges that the yard would prefer to build a new one but says the VLOOs, which are currently trading ore and oil or are idling, were built at Hyundai so the yard knows them well. He says the first could be in place by the end of 2014 or early 2015.
He says the next step will be to start marketing the LNG, which he sees as going to Asia. He says the company already has buyers pencilled in and will sign MOUs with them “very soon”.
He has yet to disclose the details of his so-called “Squid” LNG shuttle tanker, which would be used to serve Octopus 8.
He reveals that these vessels will be of around 170,000-cbm to 180,000-cbm capacity and that the current breed of LNG carriers cannot load and discharge in mid-ocean but he claims Squid will be able to do this.
And here's a synopsis for an article in International Oil Daily:
Taiwan Shipping Firm Eyes FLNG
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Summary
A Taiwan-based shipping firm is looking to liquefy stranded natural gas in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa through floating LNG (FLNG) technology. A 1.5 million ton/yr FLNG unit, the Octopus 8, will be built, with production expected to start in early 2015, TMT Group Founder and Chief Executive Nobu Su told International Oil Daily Tuesday.
Hmmm... building a costly FLNG to process flare gas from oil-drilling operations? Really? And they plan to operate "offshore in West Africa, in the natural resource-rich Gulf of Guinea, near the island country of Sao Tomei [sic] & Principe" to "tap into the country’s natural energy resources", including the JDZ and EEZ? Could there be any "stranded natural gas in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa" in the JDZ to "liquefy"? Wonder if they would be interested in buying into a certain gaseous JDZ block and doing some "gas extraction" of "stranded natural gas" there? One has to wonder. Could TMT be ERHC's white knight in Block 2? They have deep pockets. Time will tell. - Longtimer
P.S.: Here's another article that reports some of the technical details of the FLNG project:
Japanese Nobu Su of TMT plans innovative LNG-FPSO
>> Global: Taiwanese shipowner Nobu Su, the CEO of family-owned Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) shipping company, formerly know as Taiwan Maritime Transport, plans to offer a fleet of floating liquefaction (FLNG) units (LNG-FPSOs) to the market. The plan comprises the conversion of TMT’s fleet of eight Very Large Oil/Ore Bulk Carriers (VLOOs), using a new design that aims for ‘zero motion’ and ‘zero sloshing’.
The floater has been named “Octopus8” in reference to the number of conversion candidates.
He would leave the 319,869-dwt, 2010 and 2011-built vessels’ existing tanks in situ and fit an LNG Mark III-type containment system into them to give the world’s first triple-hull FLNG unit, Nobu says. He is currently working on the design and proposals for this together with Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT), France’s membrane-type system designer. Further Nobu said he is prepared to undertake the first hull conversion on TMT’s account and plans to put the first vessel into the yard for the work next year.
The company is also working with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) on the conversion project. HHI already built the VLOOs for TMT. A yard official claims that technically the work is possible.
However, the company will seek customers to design and build the units’ topsides, as Nobu said. The result would be a 340-metre by 60-metre unit that would have capacity to produce around 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, store 175,000-cbm of product and process condensate.
By the end of 2012 so Nobu believes together TMT and GTT can finalise the tank containment design and if a customer comes forward to add the topside, a unit could be ready by 2014. Front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the floater is already being undertaken by a Singapore-based company, as he added.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. – Benjamin Franklin
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. – Oscar Wilde
