KSOE signs $450 mn Myanmar offshore plant deal with Posco International

[Photo provided by Posco International]

South Korea’s largest shipbuilder Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE) on Wednesday signed a 500 billion won ($449.6 million) deal to build an offshore gas platform for the phase 3 development of Posco International’s LNG field project offshore Myanmar.

The deal is to construct a 27,000-ton gas compression platform to be connected to the existing platform in the Shwe gas field in the Southeast Asian country to maintain the current gas output of 500 million cubic feet per day.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering plans to build the offshore platform at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Ulsan plant to install it in the field in the first half of 2024. It will perform engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning.

[Photo provided by Posco]

Posco International’s offshore gas field exploring project in Myanmar first began in 2000. Commercial production in the field started in December 2014, generating 300-400 billion won in operating profit per year from the business.

The company has conducted the phase 2 development since September 2017 and now is preparing to complete the development until next year to begin commercial production at the Shwe gas field and Shwe Phyu field.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering shares fell 4.1 percent to 98,300 won on Thursday.

Separately, Posco International on Thursday posted an operating profit of 87.25 billion won in the fourth quarter, down 18.5 percent from a quarter ago and 10.7 percent a year earlier. Net profit plunged 63.9 percent on quarter but jumped more than 16-fold on year to 19.82 billion won, while sales gained 11.3 percent from three months ago but lost 5 percent against a year earlier to total 5.64 trillion won.

For full 2020, Posco International’s operating profit fell 21.6 percent to 474.48 billion won on sales of 21.47 trillion won, down 12.1 percent on year. Net profit stretched 13.4 percent to 229.5 billion won with efforts to pay back debt for enhanced debt ratio.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]