The project, which is being undertaken by Wison Offshore & Marine under an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning contract from Exmar, comprises a non-propelled barge that will be installed off the coast of Colombia.

It will be equipped to convert 69.5 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas into LNG.

The Caribbean FLNG project is expected to have a throughput of about 500,000 tonnes of LNG per annum - a fair step down from the 4 million tonnes per annum the Prelude FLNG will turn out.

The topsides equipment for the Caribbean FLNG will use the Prico technology, a process developed by Black & Veatch to liquefy natural gas.

It is the first time the system will be applied to a FLNG facility.

The Caribbean FLNG project began fabrication in late 2012 and is on schedule to start operations in 2015.

The project also achieved another key milestone in October when the three LNG storage tanks, with a combined capacity of 16,100 cubic metres, were installed in the barge hull, followed by the installation of the barge deck in November.

Exmar CEO Nicolas Saverys said that by achieving that milestone, the world's first FLNG was a step closer to commercial operations for Exmar's client Pacific Rubiales Energy.

"We are confident that the Caribbean FLNG project will be a commercial success because of the combination of Exmar's extensive LNG expertise together with the proven experience of our EPCIC contractor Wison and key subcontractor Black & Veatch."

Wison Offshore & Marine president Dwayne Breaux said the topsides processing facility from Black & Veatch was the heart of the FLNG system.