Method for air cooled, large scale, floating lng production with liquefaction gas as only refrigerant

A method for large scale, air cooled floating liquefaction, storage and offloading of natural gas, the method comprising:

• a) Gas gathering from on-shore sources and treating the gas on shore by removal of mercury, removal of acid gas, dehydration and removal of C6+ hydrocarbons,
• b) on-shore compression and cooling of the treated gas;
• c) piping of the compressed gas from onshore to an offshore pipeline end manifold;
• d) piping of gas from the pipeline end manifold to an offshore ship shaped, external turret moored vessel;
• e) reception of the gas on the vessel via a swivel mounted on the turret;
• f) distribution of the gas to three parallel liquefaction trains on the vessel;
• g) gas liquefaction by methane refrigerant and subsequent flash;
• h) cooling the gas from compressors by heat exchange with water;
• i) heating the cooling water to 80° C. or higher downstream process heat exchangers;
• j) cooling of the cooling water by heat exchange with air in air coolers:
• k) air coolers mounted on at least three mechanically independent cantilevers, in total extending at least 50% of the vessel length;
• l) recycling the cooled cooling water to process heat exchangers;
• m) gas turbine air intakes for liquefaction and utilities located on the opposite side of the air cooler cantilevers;
• n) sending LNG that is not completely stabilized to storage tanks;
• o) storing produced LNG in multiple smaller membrane tanks onboard the vessel;
• p) flashing LNG in the storage tanks;
• q) gas offloading to LNG tank vessels while the liquefaction processes are in full production.