IZAR Fene Shipyard Receives Order for LNG Barge

Norway's Statoil has ordered the construction of an LNG barge from IZAR Fene Shipyard to serve as support for a gas liquefaction plant. The LNG barge, scheduled to be completed in August 2003, will house on its deck about 24,000 tons of processing equipment for the plant, which will convert natural gas from the Snøhvit field into liquefied natural gas (LNG). About 70 cargoes of LNG per year will be shipped out from this floating plant. The barge will be 505 ft. long, 177 ft. wide and 30 ft. high. It will have a net 8,500 tonne weight of steel. The deal was signed on June 28 in Munich by Statoil’s Fabrication Director, Odvar Birkedal, and the Spanish yard Managing Director, Santiago García. The unit will be located in the harsh weather environment of the Barents Sea, close to the Melkøya island, in northern Norway. The floating processing plant is part of an ambitious project to develop offshore natural gas fields of Albatross, Askeladden and Snøhvit, not far from Hammerfest. Snoehvit has recoverable reserves of 193 bn cubic meters of gas and 113m barrels of condensate and is due to start production in 2006. IZAR Fene Shipyard is since 1987 the first and only shipyard all over the world specializing in every step of offshore unit design, engineering, construction and commissioning. In January 1995, the yard delivered Castoro XI, one of the world¹s largest heavy lift transport barge, ordered in March 1994 for Saipen UK.