Samsung Heavy Industries to develop next-gen FLNG  

Class society DNV has awarded the South Korean shipbuilding giant an approval in principle for an FLNG floater independent model (MLF-N  Multi-purpose LNG Floor-Nearshore) at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC 2023) in Houston 1 May.

Samsung said MLF-N is part of a strategy targeting markets looking for faster and more economical FLNG models when compared with onshore plants.

SHI has standardised its ship model, the LNG cargo’s facilities and heights of hulls surrounding them. Samsung said standardising this design will allow capacity to be expanded from 180,000 m³ to 245,000 m³, while shortening the engineering design period, making it possible to build and deploy the unit quicker. 

It is also designed with a stable structure to support about 50,000 tonnes of upper plant facilities including natural gas liquefaction modules. 

SHI, a premier FLNG builder, constructed 488-m Prelude, the world’s largest FLNG unit for Shell, and will now incorporate some of the MLF-N designs into the Petronas FLNG unit, an order the group recently won.

“MLF-N is the best solution to meet customers’ needs who want easy, simple and fast LNG development," said SHI chief technical officer Haeki Jang. “We will continue to take a lead in FLNG through customer-oriented technology innovation.”