McDermott has been awarded a subcontract for the transportation and installation of key structures for the Kasawari carbon capture and storage (CCS) project offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.

Project and Contract Details

The CCS project is Phase 2 of the giant Kasawari gas development, operated by Petronas Carigali. The field contains about 10 trillion cubic feet of gas with a high carbon dioxide content of up to 40%. The final investment decision for the CCS scheme was taken in October 2021. In January 2024, McDermott won a subcontract from fabricator Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering (MMHE) for the transportation and installation (T&I) of the 15,000-tonne eight-leg CCS platform jacket, a connecting bridge to the existing central processing platform, and a new 16-inch diameter, 138-kilometer pipeline.

Transportation and Installation Operations

McDermott's T&I campaign was scheduled to commence, with the company's Intermac 650 floatover launch barge loading the jacket from MMHE's yard in Peninsular Malaysia for installation in Block SK 316 in a water depth of 108 meters. The operation, supported by vessels including the EOS 4002 barge and tugs MV Coral and Omni Stella, is expected to be completed around the end of May. The Malaysia-flagged tug Tegas Santubong is also involved.

CCS Technology and Impact

The CCS project incorporates Baker Hughes' technology, including two trains of low-pressure booster compressors for CO2 removal via membrane separation and two trains for reinjection. The new pipeline will deliver compressed CO2 from Kasawari for injection into a depleted reservoir at the offshore M-1 field. The scheme is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from gas flaring by 3.3 million tonnes per annum and will reinject between 71 million and 76 million tonnes of CO2 over the project's life.

Project Background and Ownership

The Kasawari field (Phase 1) on Block SK 316 was brought on stream in 2024, supplying feed gas with 30% to 40% CO2 to the Petronas LNG Complex at Bintulu. Petronas Carigali holds a 90% operated interest in the production sharing contract, with its sole partner being Petronas' subsidiary Exploration & Production Malaysia Venture (EPMV) on 10%. Petronas ultimately proceeded alone on Kasawari despite earlier offering a farm-in deal that attracted major industry players.