Argentina’s state-owned oil and gas company YPF launched a tender for engineering work for floating LNG units as part of its planned Argentina LNG export project it is developing with Malaysia’s Petronas.
YPF said in a statement on Monday the liquefied natural gas export project has reached a new milestone as it gets towards execution.
“A competitive process was launched for the award of engineering contract for the floating liquefaction units,” it said.
YPF said the project will be built in stages and have a capacity of 25 mtpa of LNG.
The firm did not provide further information.
YPF and a Petronas’ unit in Argentina signed a joint study and development agreement on September 1, 2022 to work on the potential development of the Argentina integrated LNG project, Argentina GNL, to liquefy natural gas from Vaca Muerta’s vast shale gas resources.
The project will include upstream gas production, dedicated pipeline and infrastructure development, LNG production, as well as marketing and shipping.
FID on first phase in 2025?
YPF’s CEO Horacio Marin recently said during YPF’s 2023 earnings presentation that the company expects to take a final investment decision on the first phase of the planned Argentina LNG export project in 2025.
He said that the first stage of the project “aims to bring to Argentina an existing floating LNG facility with an initial capacity between one and two mtpa by 2027.”
Marin did not provide further info on the FLNG.
Petronas may move one of the company’s existing two units from Malaysia to Argentina.
Currently, Petronas operates two floating LNG facilities, namely the 1.2 mtpa PFLNG Satu as well as the 1.5 mtpa PFLNG Dua, both located offshore Sabah. It has also a third FLNG with a capacity of 2 mtpa on order in South Korea.
Marin said the second stage of the LNG project consists of the construction of two new floating LNG faculties, representing a capacity of around 8-9 mtpa by 2030.
He said that FID on the first phase is expected by mid-2025 and “requires investments of around $200 million on a gross basis.”
YPF’s presentation shows that the third stage of the project from 2030-2032+ consists of onshore modules with a capacity of 15-20 mtpa.
YPF’s VP for strategy, business development, and control, Maximiliano Westen, also said during the presentation that YPF is “moving into the FEED stage” with the LNG project.
“We need to develop engineering, there are several packages of engineering. This year and the big part of the next year we are going to work on engineering,” he said.