Petronas lets contract for Kasawari offshore gas plant

State-run Petroleum Nasional Bhd. (Petronas) subsidiary Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. has let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to provide modular natural gas processing technology for development of a 900-MMcfd offshore gas purification plant in Kasawari gas field in the South China Sea, off Sarawak, Malaysia.

As part of the contract, UOP will deliver a suite of its proprietary acid gas removal technology, including MemGuard and Separex technologies and adsorbents, to remove contaminants such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and mercury from natural gas, UOP said.

Especially suited to process natural gas for production and power generation in remote locations such as Kasawari offshore field, the modular Separex technology—the membrane systems of which contain spiral-wound membrane elements to remove acid gas and vapor-phase water from natural gas streams—will free up valuable space within the subsea pipelines that bring gas from offshore to onshore and reduce moving parts which require minimum operator intervention, according to Michael Cleveland, vice-president and general manager of UOP’s gas processing business.

Gas processed at Kasawari will be further processed and liquefied at Petronas’s majority held Malaysia LNG Sdn. Bhd.’s (MLNG) existing nine-train LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak, to be exported globally for power generation, UOP said.

Once in operation, PCSB’s Kasawari gas purification plant will be one of largest offshore gas treatment systems in the world, according to the service provider.

In June, Petronas said it expects the Kasawari offshore central processing platform—which will produce from five subsea wells—to reach startup in first-quarter 2023 (OGJ Online, June 5, 2020).