McDermott lands role on $25B Louisiana LNG plant

Monkey Island LNG, the company behind the forthcoming eponymous LNG liquefaction facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, has awarded McDermott a master services agreement to provide front-end engineering and planning services on the project, according to a Sept. 8 news release.

Monkey Island LNG plans to invest $25 billion into the facility across two phases, which makes it one of the largest developments of its kind in North America, said Greg Michaels, founder and CEO of Monkey Island LNG, in the release. 

“By leveraging LNG mega-modules, we dramatically reduce the site footprint required for world-scale LNG production, which drives down project costs and risks,” said Michaels.

The companies did not disclose the contract value of the MSA.

McDermott, headquartered in Houston, will provide engineering, execution planning and pricing for the facility’s engineering, procurement and construction phase, according to the release. Next, Monkey Island will issue a final EPC contract aligned with the timing of Monkey Island LNG’s financing activities.

Phase 1 of the Monkey Island LNG facility will include three LNG trains with a capacity of 5.2 million metric tons per annum each and a combined production of 15.6 MTPA, according to the release. Future expansion plans include two more trains that would bring the plant’s total capacity to 26 MTPA.

McDermott, which generated $8.9 billion in revenue in 2024 and was the ninth largest builder in the U.S. by that metric, will flex its modular LNG train design on the job. Rob Shaul, senior vice president of low carbon solutions at McDermott, echoed the sentiment.

“This award underscores the depth of expertise of McDermott in LNG and modular design,” Shaul said. “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.”

Officials expect engineering and permitting to begin in 2026 with the first LNG production slated for the early 2030s, per the release. The project will be led by McDermott’s Houston team, supported by its engineering group in Gurugram, India.

McDermott isn’t the only firm that’s capitalizing on growth in the LNG space — Bechtel, based in Reston, Virginia, got the green light to proceed on the $6.7 billion Train 4 at Rio Grande LNG in Brownsville, Texas, earlier this month. 

The work comes on the heels of government support for large energy projects, which started with President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order in January. Since then, the administration has worked to speed up the permitting process with technology, after the Supreme Court curbed the National Environmental Policy Act, a foundational federal environmental law, in May.