Natural-gas liquefaction and gasification plants are huge, expensive and, up until now, land-based. However, in July 2012, Black & Veatch (No. 14) and Shanghai-based shipbuilder and engineering firm Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd. won a contract to design and construct the world's first floating LNG (FLNG) liquefaction, regasification and storage unit.
The ship is being constructed in Nantong, China, and will be floated to the Pacific Coast of Colombia, where it will process gas from the La Creciente gas field, located in the Lower Magdalena Valley Basin. The gas field is owned by Colombia's Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. The ship will be owned and operated by Dutch-based oil-and-gas shipping company EXMAR. The EXMAR EXPORT (rendered above), as the ship will be named, is scheduled to start production by the end of 2014.