A 1.5 MTPA LNG Train Built as a Repeatable Product

Technip Energies launched SnapLNG 1.5 on 17 September with Honeywell Technologies and Siemens Energy: a standardised, fully modular and electrified LNG train sized at 1.5 million tonnes per annum and designed to be replicated for larger developments.

The split of work is clear. Technip Energies handles project execution, modularisation and digital delivery. Honeywell supplies gas pretreatment, liquefaction and automation technologies — the company says its pretreatment technology is used in roughly 40 percent of the world's LNG production. Siemens Energy provides the electrified turbomachinery and compression. The partners claim up to two years off a conventional project schedule.

Loïc Chapuis, president of project delivery and services at Technip Energies, described it as a faster and more predictable route to bringing new LNG capacity online. The market context they cite is more than 200 MTPA of new capacity needed by 2035, with the US expected to account for around half of global growth.

Two details matter to anyone working on the controls. First, liquefaction is electric motor-driven rather than gas turbine driven, which moves the control problem from turbine governors to large variable-speed drives and their interaction with the grid — a different set of transients, a different protection philosophy and a much closer relationship with the electrical team. Second, standardising the train means the control narrative, the automation scope and the factory acceptance test get repeated rather than re-engineered on each project.

For a controls contractor, that is the real change. Bespoke project work and product replication are different businesses, with different margins and different skills, and the second one rewards whoever gets the first train right.