Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today arrived at Samsung Heavy Industries Geoje Shipyard for a tour of Petronas' Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (PFLNG) 2 vessel here.

The prime minister was accompanied by Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, who will be the lady sponsor and carry out the ceremonial rope cutting during the vessel's naming ceremony later today.

The PFLNG 2 which began construction in 2015, is a deepwater LNG production unit with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum. The vessel is scheduled for its sail away in February 2020.

It is the first floating LNG vessel capable of reaching deepwater gas reserves located up to 1,500 meters underwater.

She is 100 percent owned by the national oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) and is being constructed by a consortium made up of JGC Corporation of Japan and South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries.

The visit to the facility in Geoje, a city located in South Gyeongsang province, just off the coast of the port city of Busan is part of Mahathir's official visit to the country.

Dr Mahathir arrived in Busan on Nov 24, 2019, for the Asean-South Korea Commemorative Summit, followed by an official visit to South Korea from Nov 27-28, 2019.

This is his first official visit to the country since becoming Malaysia's seventh Prime Minister in May 2018.

- Bernama