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tracts for this cost-conscious era. ing producer designers LMG Marin of All-In “The challenge for Singaporean yards

In 10 years, Keppel has built mostly Bergen Norway rounds out Sembcorp’s While FLNG looks promising, it isn’t is that they are mainly exposed to rigs semi-submersibles (40 percent) and interest in pushing FLNG. LMG has clear which business activity — rigs and and vessels and these two segments are ? oating producers (25 percent). But designed LNG carriers, LNG-powered ? oaters, repairs & upgrades, platforms, the ones to recover the last in this (all too in ? nancial statements, Yuen points to ships and the Espasdon drillship design, and shipbuilding — will best help Semb- slow) upturn,” says Rystad vice presi-

FLNG conversions and IMR jack-ups a Sembcorp deliverable. corp and Keppel until the expected off- dent for oil? eld services research, Audun as the promising technology behind shore upturn. Martinsen. “The companies that would a group-wide LNG push which made

Keppel part of a new “gas value chain”.

Sembcorp’s drive includes offshore liq- uefaction and LNG carrier knowhow that bears the mark of Norwegian engi- neers from Aragon AS (formerly Kanfa

Aragon) and their “nitrogen expander”

Dual N2 technology. It seems the Nor- wegians with their 50 percent of Aragon might put it aboard FLNG newbuilds across Asia. “The global FLNG market is expected to draw US$65 billion of investments from 2014 to 2020,” Yuen said in 2015.

In February 2017, after a successful

USD100 million fundraiser, another company, FLEX LNG, told an Oslo au- dience that LNG carriers without con- tracts are increasingly rare, so there’s room for newbuilds. FLEX will build theirs in Korea, where Baltic shipping and LNG interests are building a large

LNG bunker carrier in 2018.

LNG Focus

Sembcorp’s LNG buttress against off- shore headwinds strengthens in 2017 with the arrival in March of new Group chief exec, Neil McGregor, former

CEO of Singapore LNG Corp. In a note to shareholders, Sembcorp notes Mc-

Gregor is “the architect behind the strat- egy and implementation of Singapore’s ? rst LNG Terminal”.

While Golar FLNG kick-started Kep- pel’s FLNG drive, Sembcorp’s initial

LNG growth drive has been acquisition- based so far, kicked into gear via market- ing and then ownership stakes in rising

FLNG stars. There’s also a move into smaller scale LNG shipbuilding linked to a deal with Shell to build LNG-pow- ered vessels of all types.

Sembcorp’s new LNG business will be built on a slew of designs from recent- ly acquired LMG Marine and Aragon.

There’s also a memorandum of under- standing with ENGIE to develop GRavi- ? oat, an LNG-to-power near-shore terminal solution. The Gravi? oat agree- ment means Sembcorp aims to design and deliver re-deployable terminals for near-shore gas and power installations that compete with LNG and re-gassing tech on costs. The 50-percent stake in process design engineering assemblage,

Aragon, could help here, too, while giving Sembcorp the ability to deliver offshore and nearshore FLNG. A deal for all the shares in international ? oat- www.marinelink.com 31

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