Development of Natural Gas Liquefaction FPSO

Natural gas is abundant and is cleaner than petroleum. Therefore, demand for natural gas is expected to grow significantly. However, the means of transporting natural gas is presently limited to pipelines and LNG tankers, thereby making its wider use unlikely. There are substantial numbers of known gas reservoirs that are difficult to develop utilizing current transportation means because of constraints such as the scale of gas fields, water depth, distance to shore, and distance from markets. A new, economical, reliable development technique or transportation means is required for developing such gas reservoirs. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) and private corporations have jointly investigated the Natural Gas Liquefaction Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (NGL-FPSOs) units to effectively develop gas reservoirs by converting the gas into NGL. This paper presents the background on NGL-FPSO development and findings on its application.Copyright © 2004 by ASME