Royal Dutch Shell’s recently announced bid to be the first to build a floating liquefied natural gas operation may be thwarted by rival projects in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

 

Royal Dutch Shell signed off earlier this month on its $10 billion Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) site off the coast of Western Australia.

 

According to the AFR, Malaysia’s Petronas last week said it would make a final investment decision for a floating LNG operation  by the end of the year, with production due to begin early in 2015, a year earlier than Shell’s project.

 

The other contestant is  a project in the Gulf of Papua led by Singaporean company Pacific LNG, Flex LNG, and Korean company, Samsung Heavy Industries, which could be operational by 2014. Australian engineering firm, Worley Parsons is carrying out engineering work on the PNG project.