Coral FLNG Turret Awarded to Sofec

Japanese contractor and floating production specialist Modec said July 18 its 51%-owned Houston subsidiary Sofec has been awarded a contract to provide the turret mooring system (TMS) for the Eni-operated $8bn Coral South floating liquefaction (FLNG) project offshore Mozambique.

The award to Sofec was made by Coral’s principal contractor, the joint venture of TechnipFMC and Japan’s JGC Corp which picked up the overall $2.5bn engineering procurement and construction contract in June.

The turret will allow the 3.4mn mt/yr FLNG facility to continually rotate into prevailing weather without production interruptions. Sofec will be responsible for all engineering procurement and construction related to the TMS and its ancillary components, and will assist with turret integration and offshore commissioning activities in Mozambique. “We are honoured to be awarded this contract for Coral FLNG,” said Sofec CEO Rick Hall.

A Sofec-built TMS was used in the loading of the first cargo at the world’s first FLNG system, Malaysian state Petronas’ 1.2mn mt/yr PFLNG Satu, on April 1 2017.

Coral FLNG, which is not expected to produce until 2022, took final investment decision June 1 this year and has also since awarded key subsea contracts to Aker and to GE Oil & Gas.  

Modec built many of the floating production ships (FPSOs) now operating in deep water offshore Brazil and in other frontier producing areas.

Mark Smedley