Brian Songhurst: FLNG - What is new and is it really safe?
1. FLNG – What’s New And Is It Really Safe?
Interview by Helen Winsor, Oil & Gas IQ
Brian Songhurst, director of LNG Energy and Power, speaks to Oil & Gas IQ about advances
in FLNG technology over the past year and pinpoints the areas that still require development.
Oil & Gas IQ: Hello and welcome Brian. Thanks very much for joining us. To start, do you
feel that there have been any significant advances in FLNG technology over the last year?
B Songhurst: I think the most significant events are probably two-fold; firstly is that Shell and
Petrobras are both awarded major front-end engineering design studies and I see that as a
real measure, a significant milestone in moving floating liquefaction forward.
I think the other development that is really starting to help shape the future is the development
of liquefied Natural gas (LNG) hoses which are starting to be used quite expensively now by
Exmar, and I think that is going to certainly help a lot with the issue of weather and significant
wave height in terms of availability of unloading systems. So yes, I do, I think there have been
some significant advances on those two points.
Oil & Gas IQ: Thank you, and from a technical perspective, what areas do you feel still
require development?
B Songhurst: I think really I want to speak up on the one above. Although we're making
really good progress with the hoses, I think the industry really would like to offload LNG from
a liquefaction vessel to a shuttle tanker in a tandem mooring arrangement where the shuttle
tanker is actually behind the vessel in much the same way that oil is transported from a FPSO
to an oil tanker where the two vessels are not side by side, but they are some 50 metres, 60
metres apart, one behind the other. I think everybody really desires that as a solution.
All the current solutions are still really based on side by side, including Shell’s at the moment,
and I think if we could develop an aerial hose that would enable tandem offloading of LNG to
a shuttle tanker, I really think that will be a major step forward. I think that's a major area, in
my mind.
I think the rest of the issues like sloshing in tanks and liquefaction technology, all those other
aspects, honestly I believe they are quite well solved now and most of them are occurring to
some extent on complex FPSOs currently used in the oil industry as well. Many of those are
actually producing and exporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), it’s just the cryogenic aspects
which haven’t.
There is one other aspect which I think does need to be looked at and it’s talked about a lot,
which is the possibility of LNG spills on these vessels, and clearly LNG would seriously
damage a carbon steel deck of a ship, but there are technologies there that will enable those
spills to be captured and to protect the deck, but maybe that is just one other area that is
worthy of a bit more evaluation.
Oil & Gas IQ: Thank you Brian, and with health and safety on everybody’s mind, do you feel
that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a big role to play in the development of
FLNG?
2. B Songhurst: Yes I do. I think the first thing to say about LNG is it has a tremendously good
safety record; 1944 was the last major incident of an LNG accident in Cleveland in the United
States. Since that time there really has been a superb safety record of the LNG industry.
I think clearly HSE has a role to play. We clearly need, at each step of the development, right
from the outset, to have HSE plans to make sure that we're clear in our understanding of
health, safety and environmental issues, and clearly they will have their role to play. So I think
yes, clearly it will have a role, there's a doubt about that and it needs to be worked out, but
the industry has an excellent safety record. I would first say it’s outstanding and I know the
industry wants to continue with that.
I think in terms of comparing it with onshore based liquefaction projects, the issues are
different. Here we clearly have motion and we have that safety issue to look at, and we have
a much more compact plant, but let’s recognise that major oil Floating Production Storage
and Offloading vessels (FPSOs) today are extremely complex, they're extremely compact,
they have lots of piping and systems, they're handling LPG which in many ways can be
regarded as more dangerous than LNG.
By nature, the LPGs explode whereas LNG burns, so I think there are different aspects, but I
would not say floating liquefaction is more dangerous. No, there are different issues that need
to be worked and I think the industry is in excellent shape to work them through and is
working them through with these major engineering studies that are going on at the moment.
Oil & Gas IQ: Thanks for your views. How close, in your opinion, are we to FLNG moving
from theory to practice?
B Songhurst: A very difficult question. I think, from a technology point of view I would say
we're very close, within the next couple of years. I think the real issue at the moment is the
low gas prices and the sheer economics. At the moment I think that floating liquefaction
economics is more expensive than onshore, although there are pros and cons and there are
situations where floating liquefaction could be a lower-cost solution, but I think it needs a
more robust gas price in the industry to actually make or get sanction of the first LNG project,
the first floating liquefaction project.
I think that is what's standing in the way at the moment of getting the sanction of the first
project. I think the other issues can generally be worked, but I would like to think... who knows
about LNG and gas prices? I don't know the answer to that, but I think once prices are
stronger and firmer, that will be really the key signal point for a floating liquefaction project to
proceed.
Oil & Gas IQ: Thanks, Brian, for your insight into this, and in what way do you think that
meetings like the Global Floating LNG Summit are useful for the FLNG community?
B Songhurst: I think the biggest value is networking and exchanging of views. There are
quite a lot of issues out there to be worked on. They're not in insurmountable by any means,
but I do believe it’s by talking together, having summits like this where people can share
views and share best practices, share understanding, share solutions that they've developed,
recognising of course proprietary information as well. I think there is nothing better than
people getting together and working the issues jointly as an industry.
Oil & Gas IQ: We hope it will be a useful summit. What areas will you be covering there?
B Songhurst: I’ll be running a workshop looking at what's missing for the sanction of the first
floating liquefaction project and the way many of the points that you've just asked me about
relate to that. That will be my own particular activity with the workshop. I will also be giving a
paper where I'll be trying to cut through some of the hype, maybe, which has been addressed
in floating liquefaction to really just try and address some of the key issues and how we need
to break through and get into there.
3. I think one of the areas that I really want to cover too is that the floating storage and
regasification business has become quite mature now. I think there are over eight projects
actually in operation so we've built a lot of confidence through that. I'd like to see that
confidence extended now into floating liquefaction.
Oil & Gas IQ: We look forward to hearing more from the event. Thank you very much for your
time, it’s been great to speak to you.
The Global Floating LNG Summit will take place from 20th - 21st January in London. For
further information, please visit the website: www.globalflngsummit.co.uk, call the enquiries
team on 0800 652 2363, or email enquire@iqpc.co.uk.
IQPC
Please note that we do all we can to ensure accuracy within the translation to word of audio interviews but that errors may still
understandably occur in some cases. If you believe that a serious inaccuracy has been made within the text, please contact +44
(0) 207 368 9425 or email helen.winsor@iqpc.co.uk.
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