Linde Group’s Engineering Division and project partner SBM Offshore have signed a partnership agreement with PTT FLNG Limited and PTTEP Australasia for the development of a Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility in the Timor Sea off Northern Australia.

The project is planned to produce LNG from three gas field groups including Cash/Maple, Oliver and Southern fields. Preliminary studies have started in March 2011. Assumed that the gas resources being found meet expectations, the project will enter into front-end engineering and design studies by the end of 2011. The final investment decision is targeted for the end of 2012, and first commercial operations for the end of 2016.

The facility will be located approximately 680 kilometers west of Darwin, Australia, and 200 kilometers southeast of the Indonesian coastline. The plant will have the capacity to produce approximately two million tons of LNG per year.

Linde’s Engineering Division will build the topsides of the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading units (FPSO) including gas processing and natural gas liquefaction, based on Linde's proprietary natural gas liquefaction technology. SBM Offshore, based in the Netherlands, is a market leader in the field of FPSOs for the oil industry. Floating LNG technology is highly innovative and allows ‘stranded’ offshore gas fields to be developed that otherwise would not be economic.

Upon final investment decision, The Linde Group, SBM Offshore, together with PTT FLNG, plan to jointly develop and operate the FLNG facility for PTTEP Australasia, the operator of the gas fields. Through this joint operation, Linde will gain wider access to the growing LNG world market.