Wison Offshore & Marine announced the award of a binding agreement with Vessel Gasification Solutions (VGS) of New Jersey, USA, for the supply of the industry’s first barge-based floating LNG regasification unit (FRU) to be installed offshore India.
The FRU, which will be owned by VGS, will consist of a newbuild, non-propelled barge equipped to perform the regasification and send out of a maximum of 1,000MMscf/d of gas. The facility will be moored on a jetty structure located approximately 8km offshore Andhra Pradesh on India’s eastern coast, to the northeast of the Kakinada Anchorage Port, alongside a permanent floating storage unit (FSU) that will be used as the LNG offloading point for trading tankers. Furthermore, the FRU will be adequately sized to allow for the future expansion of the regasification capability by an additional 750MMscf/d of gas within the next few years in order to meet the rapidly growing natural gas requirements in the region.
Under the agreement, Wison Offshore & Marine affiliates will be responsible for the turnkey engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of the unit and will lead the project from its Shanghai operational center with construction to be performed at Wison’s wholly-owned fabrication facility located in Nantong, China.
“With the execution of this agreement, Wison has allowed VGS to significantly increase the first-mover advantage we have established on India’s East Coast, ” said Gaurav Tiwari, President of VGS. “Taken with the appointment of Exmar to operate and manage the Kakinada LNG Import Terminal, along with the finalization of the Project’s insurance structuring, stitching up these three critical milestones keeps with the fast-track timetable with which we are driving the project forward. Now, with Wison and Exmar partnered for the Project’s implementation we can continue to move forward briskly, but also with great certitude.”
“We are very excited to be moving forward with VGS on this project and provide another innovative LNG facility to the market,” added L. Dwayne Breaux, President of Wison Offshore & Marine “ The FRU will be the integral part of VGS’s plan to meet a significant energy need in the Indian market. The fact that VGS has entrusted the delivery of this unit to Wison is a testament to our strong relationship with this key player in the LNG market and our growing position in the industry as a trusted supplier of LNG facilities.”
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