Golar LNG Ltd has signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Societe Nationale de Hydrocarbures (SNH) and Perenco Cameroon (Perenco) for the development of a floating LNG (FLNG) export project located 20 km off the coast of Cameroon.

The FLNG project will utilise Golar's floating liquefaction technology (GoFLNG).

The HOA is premised on the allocation of 500 billion ft3 of natural gas reserves from offshore Kribi fields, which will be exported to global markets via the GoFLNG facility Golar HIlli, now under construction at the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore.

Golar will provide the liquefaction facilities and services under a tolling agreement to SNH and Perenco as owners of the upstream joint venture, who also intend to produce LPG's for the local market in association with the FLNG project. It is anticipated that the allocated reserves will be produced at a rate of approximately 1.2 million tpy of LNG over an approximate eight-year period.

It is expected that during the first half of 2015 definitive commercial agreements will be executed and necessary licenses and approvals secured for the production, liquefaction and export of the reserves, and that production will commence in the first half of 2017. The FLNG project will be the first FLNG export project in Africa and will see Cameroon joining the small number of LNG exporting nations.

The project in Cameroon demonstrates Golar's latest strategic move to extend its business model further upstream by deploying its floating liquefaction technology.