The company announced that the SMDC joint venture, in which Daewoo Engineering & Construction participates as a prime contractor, has been chosen as the midstream EPC contractor for the Rovuma LNG Phase 1 project in Mozambique. Daewoo Engineering & Construction officially received a letter of intent (LOI) from ExxonMobil Mozambique, the lead developer of the project, on Wednesday for pre-front-end engineering design, procurement and constructability review work. For the project, Daewoo Engineering & Construction formed the SMDC JV — an EPC consortium — together with Italy's Saipem, US-based McDermott and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC), and has been participating as the prime contractor. The LOI covers preliminary engineering refinement, procurement of major equipment and constructability reviews ahead of full construction following a final investment decision (FID). ExxonMobil Mozambique plans to complete the FID by year-end, after which it will sign the main EPC contract and begin full-scale construction. The project owner is Rovuma Venture S.p.A., a local entity established to oversee the construction and operation of natural gas development in the Area 4 block, a large offshore gas field. The venture brings together MRV — a consortium led by ExxonMobil alongside Italian state energy company ENI and Chinese oil firm CNPC — holding a 70 percent stake, with Mozambique's state oil company ENH, Korea Gas Corporation and Abu Dhabi's state oil company XRG each holding 10 percent. The Rovuma LNG Phase 1 project will be developed as an electrically driven LNG liquefaction plant that includes liquefaction facilities capable of producing 18.6 million tons of LNG per year, a large combined-cycle gas power plant for electricity supply and other ancillary facilities. Commercial operation and the first commissioning run are scheduled for 2031. The overseas LNG liquefaction plant construction market has long been dominated by a handful of global contractors — among them Bechtel and McDermott of the United States, Japan's JGC and Chiyoda, and Italy's Saipem. The extreme technical demands of the work, including cryogenic process control at temperatures below minus 162 degrees Celsius, have historically confined South Korean construction companies to subcontractor roles. Daewoo Engineering & Construction broke that mold in 2020, when it formed a consortium with leading EPC players in Nigeria and became the first South Korean construction company to secure prime contractor status, leading the Nigeria LNG Train 7 project. "Receiving this LOI marks a complete break from the limitations that had kept South Korean construction companies at the subcontractor level," a company official said. "It is recognition that we have the capability to lead projects shoulder to shoulder with the world's top EPC players." The company's competitive strengths span the full project lifecycle. Daewoo Engineering & Construction holds end-to-end execution capabilities covering upstream central processing facilities that remove impurities from gas fields, midstream LNG liquefaction plants requiring advanced technology and construction expertise, and LNG receiving and storage facilities as well as large combined-cycle gas power plants. Domestically, the company recently handed over the completed Phase 1, 2 and 3 construction of the Ulsan North Port LNG terminal — known as Korea Energy Terminal — to its client "We will provide full support from the early design and procurement stages to ensure the client's final investment decision, expected at year-end, proceeds without a hitch," a company official said. "When the contract converts to a full EPC agreement, it will represent a major overseas order, and we will solidify the company's mid- to long-term growth engine through rigorous risk management and technical excellence." (ICE SEOUL)

Fonte notizia: The Herald Business