(EnergyAsia, March 20 2012, Tuesday) — Malaysian state energy company Petronas said it has awarded the contract for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for a 3.6 million tons/year liquefied natural gas (LNG) project to JGC Corporation and to a Chiyoda Corporation-Saipem SpA partnership.

Petronas, which is building train 9 at its LNG complex in Bintulu in Sarawak state, said the two contractors will compete for the project’s FEED and in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) price proposal.

Upon completion of the FEED project in December 2012, Petronas will announce the winner for the project’s engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract.

When completed by end-2015, train 9 will boost the Bintulu complex’s capacity to 27.6 million t/y and will be supplied by up to 850 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas supply from various fields located off the coast of Sarawak.

Using the same liquefaction process technology as the other eight trains, the new unit will include gas receiving facilities, acid gas removal unit, dehydration and mercury removal unit, fractionation and liquefaction unit, LNG rundown unit and all the associated utilities and facilities.

A new company, Petronas LNG 9 Sdn Bhd, was incorporated on January 13 2012 to manage the project.