KBR Wins Vessel Design Contract for Bonaparte Floating LNG Project

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--KBR (NYSE:KBR) (Houston, Texas) has been selected to execute a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel design for the Bonaparte project, in the Timor Sea off the northern tip of Western Australia.

The project is owned by GDF Suez (Paris, France), which has 60% equity and operatorship, and Santos (Adelaide, Australia), which has the remaining 40%. The proposed project is expected to produce 2 million metric tons of LNG, with estimated start up in the final quarter of 2018.

The vessel design award was announced by KBR on November 7, 2012, in a press release. This phase of design work is commonly known as the preliminary front-end engineering and design (Pre-FEED) phase, and is a culmination of concept selection and design. KBR has begun concept definition work in Leatherhead, London, in October. KBR will continue to perform work on the project out of its London, Houston and Perth operational centers.

Pre-FEED for the vessel will take between nine and 12 months to complete. Once Pre-FEED is complete, GDF Suez will assess bids for the FEED and EPC contract, with KBR in the running. GDF Suez is encouraging competition with the award of a yet-to-be-announced, second contractor for vessel design. KBR and its competitor have both achieved pre-qualification for the front-end engineering design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract. The FEED phase will begin by the end of 2014 and may take up to a year and a half to complete.

KBR subsidiary Granherne has been involved with the Bonaparte project since January 2011, when the company was awarded a pre-FEED contract, along with joint venture partner Doris Engineering (Paris, France). Granherne continues to carry out upstream pre-FEED and is bidding for the Bonaparte subsea installation.

Substantial design and engineering work will see the project through to its final investment decision in the latter half of 2014. The construction period for upstream, midstream and the downstream aspect inclusive of the vessel and onboard production facilities is estimated to take up to four years.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.