The 365m-long hull was launched in the first week of April while the photo, released by Daewoo yesterday, revealed that a lot of top side construction had been completed since.

"Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering has combined its commercial ship and offshore technologies when creating the hull structure and top side of this FLNG," Daewoo said.

"The recent movement in the offshore market is focused on exploiting gas fields and this FLNG is an example of the next generation of offshore projects."

The vessel will end up moored at Malaysia's Kanowit field and is targeting 1.2 million tonnes per annum with first production by late 2015.

Petronas anticipates it to be the world's first FLNG in operation with first gas from Shell's long-heralded Prelude FLNG project expected in 2016.

PFLNG1 is also designed as a floating production, storage and offloading vessel with Daewoo saying it will be able to store up to 180,000 cubic metres of LNG and 20,000 cubic metres of condensate.

Petronas' second FLNG vessel is also under construction and targeting 1.5Mtpa from a mooring at the Rotan gas field off the Malaysian coast of Sabah with first production expected by early 2018.