McDermott Wins Vaca Muerta LNG Contract

US engineering firm McDermott said July 19 that it has secured a contract for pre-front end engineering and design (Feed) work at Argentine oil and gas company YPF’s planned Vaca Muerta LNG export facility.

The work will build on a conceptual study McDermott was commissioned to carry out on the project last year. Work will begin immediately, with the contract award to be reflected in McDermott’s backlog for the second quarter.

“The award of this pre-Feed project is a testimony of McDermott’s technical expertise in LNG and our successful partnership with YPF over the years," said McDermott’s senior vice president for North, Central and South America Mark Coscio in a statement. “Our experience as the EPC contractor for the Peru LNG Facility in which YPF was involved – combined with McDermott's modularisation capabilities – were key factors that made us uniquely qualified to win and execute this contract."

The Vaca Muerta LNG terminal will export gas produced at fields within Argentina’s prolific Vaca Muerta shale formation. It will boast an initial liquefaction capacity of 5mn mt/yr, rising to 10mn mt/yr under a potential second stage.