HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Hanwha Ocean are locked in high-stakes competition for floating production, storage and offloading contracts across two separate continents, as the global offshore energy sector shows renewed appetite for major capital projects.

Browse Project Draws Two Korean Giants into Rival Consortiums

Three consortiums submitted technical proposals last month following a tender issued by Australian energy company Woodside for two FPSO units to be deployed at the Browse project, Australia's largest undeveloped offshore gas field.

Two of those three consortiums include South Korean shipbuilders. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has formed a consortium with U.S. engineering firm KBR and Netherlands-based FPSO specialist operator SBM Offshore. Samsung Heavy Industries has partnered with Norwegian offshore engineering firm Aker Solutions and APL, a Norwegian FPSO specialist systems company.

Both consortiums are expected to submit commercial bids within the current month, according to industry sources.

The Browse project is designed to extract subsea gas via FPSO units, transport it to onshore facilities, and produce liquefied natural gas. Once fully operational, annual LNG production is expected to reach 11.4 million tons. Total investment in the project stands at USD 35.2 billion, with each individual FPSO unit estimated to be worth several billion dollars.

The project has been in development since the 2010s but has been repeatedly derailed by domestic and international headwinds as well as environmental regulations.

In its latest revival attempt, Woodside has proposed injecting carbon dioxide generated during gas field development into underground storage. A shipbuilding industry source noted that compared to previous attempts, the FPSO tender process is moving faster and participants' expectations are growing.

Track Records on the Line for HD Hyundai and Samsung

Both South Korean companies are expected to emphasize price competitiveness alongside their accumulated offshore plant credentials. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries signed a contract in 2024 with a Middle Eastern client to supply one gas field offshore platform topside module worth approximately USD 1.2 billion, and in 2023 secured an order from Woodside itself for the Trion floating production unit.

The company also signed a contract worth approximately USD 374.1 million in 2021 with POSCO International for an engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning contract covering a gas compression platform for Myanmar gas field development.

Samsung Heavy Industries, meanwhile, secured the Delfin FLNG order in June of this year, described as the first floating LNG production facility in U.S. history, valued at USD 2.9 billion. The company signed a USD 1.5 billion contract with an Asian shipowner for one offshore production facility in 2022, and in 2019 won the Ruby FPSO order from India's Reliance.

Hanwha Ocean Faces SBM Offshore in Namibia's Venus Field

While its two domestic rivals contest the Australian project, Hanwha Ocean is engaged in a separate competition for an FPSO contract tied to the Venus oil field development project off the southern coast of Namibia, a project led by France's TotalEnergies.

The Venus contract involves installing up to 40 production and injection wells at water depths of approximately 3,000 meters. Crude oil produced at those depths will be processed and stored aboard the FPSO before being offloaded to vessels.

The FPSO's production capacity is set at 150,000 barrels per day, and the total project value is estimated at USD 3 billion.

TotalEnergies is targeting first oil production in 2030. Hanwha Ocean's principal competitor for the Venus contract is SBM Offshore, the same company that has joined HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in the consortium competing for the Browse project in Australia.

SBM currently operates 16 FPSO units as a specialist operator, has an existing working relationship with TotalEnergies, and possesses standardized design technology. During its second-quarter conference call, SBM stated that while the Venus project is strategically important, it will not lower expected returns on individual projects, a position analysts interpreted as leaving room for price competition.

Hanwha's Order Drought and Its Efforts to Stay Competitive

Hanwha Ocean's energy plant business division has not secured a major new FPSO order since the Petrobras FPSO P-79 project in Brazil, which began in 2021 under the company's previous identity as Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

The USD 4.5 million operating profit recorded by that division in the second quarter of this year resulted from one-time revenue recognition tied to the P-79 delivery.

To bolster its competitive position, Hanwha Ocean has obtained Approval in Principle from the Norwegian classification society DNV for its low-carbon standard FPSO design framework and has also secured a Proactive Safety and Environmental Performance certificate from the American Bureau of Shipping.

Adding further uncertainty to Hanwha's prospects, the final investment decision for the Venus field, originally scheduled for July, faces the possibility of being pushed back to next year. Stalled fiscal terms negotiations between the Namibian government and TotalEnergies have generated concern about the timeline within the industry.

Broader Market Context: Offshore Opportunity vs. PCTC Pressure

The simultaneous pursuit of multiple FPSO contracts reflects expectations within South Korea's shipbuilding sector that offshore plant orders will continue to expand.

However, the competitive landscape is not uniformly favorable for Korean yards.

China's shipbuilding industry has pushed its share of the pure car and truck carrier market above 80 percent, a development that industry observers say is exposing cracks in South Korea's strategy of defending its position through concentration on high-value vessel segments.

The Browse FPSO contracts and the Venus field assignment represent exactly the kind of high-value, technically complex work that Korean shipbuilders have positioned themselves to win. With commercial bids for Browse due within the month and the Venus FID timeline uncertain, the coming weeks will test whether that positioning translates into signed contracts for at least some of the three companies now competing across two separate oceans.