Louisiana-based Monkey Island LNG has signed a deal with McDermott to provide front-end engineering and planning services, the US construction company announced.

Under the terms of the agreement, McDermott will provide engineering, execution planning, and pricing for the plant's engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) phase.

“This award underscores the depth of expertise of McDermott in LNG and modular design,” Rob Shaul, Senior Vice President of Low Carbon Solutions at McDermott said in a statement.

“Our integrated delivery model—including self-perform construction and a global network of McDermott-owned fabrication yards—positions us to deliver a solution that maximizes value while minimizing risk,” Shaul added.

The permitting and construction process is expected to commence in 2026. The Cameron Parish-based facility is expected to begin first LNG production in the early 2030s.

The news comes as Monkey Island LNG also revealed that it has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a $35bn offtake agreement.

The buyer has not been named yet, but the firm will secure access to offtake of as much as 5.2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG from the facility’s first liquefaction train.

The mega project will see three liquefaction trains constructed in the first phase giving the plant a production capacity of 15.6mn tpy, while phase two would increase nameplate production capacity to 26mn tpy.

Upon completion, the project would be able to liquefy about 3.4 bn cubic feet (96mn cubic metres) per day of natural gas. It will also feature three LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of about 180,000 cubic metres. A total investment cost of $25bn is estimated for the project.

September has been a busy month for Monkey Island LNG. Earlier in the month, Monkey Island LNG revealed it had chosen ConocoPhillips to provide its optimised cascade process liquefaction technology to be used at its export terminal.