Delfin LNG Awards Offshore Survey Contract to TDI-Brooks for Louisiana Deepwater Port

Delfin LNG has awarded the offshore geophysical and geotechnical survey services contract for the Delfin Deepwater Port Project, offshore Louisiana, to TDI-Brooks.

TDI-Brooks will act as prime contractor, executing the full scope of work including geophysical survey activities, and will manage the geotechnical investigation with subcontractor Tolunay-Wong Engineers (TWE).

Geophysical data acquisition is scheduled to begin at the end of August aboard the R/V Brooks McCall, according to Offshore Engineer. The geotechnical phase is anticipated to start in late September.

Survey work of this kind sets the seabed and soil conditions that determine mooring design and subsea infrastructure routing for a deepwater port. The sequencing puts the acoustic and shallow-hazard work ahead of the sampling and coring campaign.

The Delfin Deepwater Port Project is planned as the first offshore LNG export facility in the United States using floating LNG (FLNG) technology, according to World Oil. That structure moves liquefaction offshore rather than onto a coastal terminal site.

The full development envisions up to three FLNG vessels with combined capacity of approximately 13.2 million tonnes per annum, Offshore Engineer reported. The first unit targets around 4.4 mtpa.

A single 4.4 mtpa unit accounts for one third of the envisioned 13.2 mtpa build-out, leaving the remaining volume dependent on the second and third vessels. The phased vessel count gives the developer a smaller first increment than a comparable onshore train program of the same headline capacity.

The contract award marks the point at which offshore site characterization moves from planning to vessel mobilization, with the R/V Brooks McCall assigned to the geophysical campaign.