Resources: 22-October-09 

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and GE Oil and Gas have been awarded a collective $2.46 billion worth of work on the Gorgon gas project, taking the total amount of contracts awarded to just under $9.5 billion.

Hyundai won a $2.06 billion order for a natural gas facility on the Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in a long-expected deal that comes as a relief for the sluggish shipbuilding industry.

In a statement released today, Hyundai announced its success in the bid for module fabrication for the Barrow Island LNG plant, which is expected to produce a projected $64 billion boost to Australia's gross domestic product over 30 years as well as employment of about 10,000 people at peak construction.

Hyundai, the world's biggest shipbuilder, will build modules for the Gorgon project, by 2013 after outbidding rivals Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Samsung Heavy Industries and McDermott International in the bid.

"The competition with international and compatriot rivals was fierce, specially due to the downturn of the shipbuilding market as a result of the global recession, and HHI's success in this huge and prestigious contract will contribute to HHI's growth and enhance its turnover and profit positively," Hyundai said in a statement.

With the decline in shipping amid the deteriorating global economy, ship makers have turned their attention to energy development vessels and plants to overcome the downturn in the sector.

HHI's bid for the Gorgon project was originally made in February and consists of 48 modules weighing about 190,000 tonnes with a contract price of more than $US2 billion, the biggest single contact in the company's history.

The contract is effective October 1 with the modules expected to be delivered by 2012-13.

Meantime, GE Oil and Gas announced today that it had secured a $400 million contract to provide equipment to drive LNG production and the project's carbon dioxide sequestration project, which will be the world's largest.

Gorgon will have three trains to produce a total of 15 million tonnes of LNG each year while six trains will be required for the sequestration project.

GE said the carbon sequestration project will inject up to four times more carbon dioxide than any other project worldwide.

The $400 million contract is GE's second Gorgon contract with the company having been awarded in May last year a five-year agreement to supply subsea equipment and support services.

Today's contract wins lifts the total amount of work awarded by Chevron to $9.46 billion.

The only other contract larger than Hyundai's is the $2.7 billion contract awarded to the Kellogg JV, led by Kellogg Brown and Root and includes Perth-based Clough, JGC Corporation and Hatch.