January 2014, Vol. 241 No. 1
Projects
Shell Floats Hull For Worlds Largest Floating LNG Facility
The 488-meter-long hull of Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility has been floated out of dry dock at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) yard in Geoje, South Korea, where the facility is under construction.
Once complete, Prelude FLNG will be the largest floating facility ever built. It will unlock energy resources offshore and produce approximately 3.6 million tons of LNG per annum.
“Making FLNG a reality is no simple feat,” said Matthias Bichsel, Shell Projects & Technology Director. “A project of this complexity – both in size and ingenuity – harnesses the best of engineering, design, manufacturing and supply chain expertise from around the world. Getting to this stage of construction, given that we only cut the first steel a year ago, is down to the expert team we have ensuring that the project’s critical dimensions of safety, quality, cost and schedule are delivered.”
FLNG will allow Shell to produce natural gas at sea, turn it into LNG, and then transfer it directly to ships that will transport it to customers. It will enable development of gas resources ranging from clusters of smaller more remote fields to potentially larger fields via multiple facilities where onshore development is not viable. This can mean faster, cheaper, more flexible development and deployment strategies for resources that were previously uneconomic or constrained by technical or other risks.
Prelude FLNG is the first deployment of Shell’s FLNG technology and will operate in a remote basin around 475- km northeast of Broome, Western Australia for about 25 years. The facility will remain onsite during all weather, having been designed to withstand a Category 5 cyclone.
Shell is the operator of Prelude FLNG in joint venture with INPEX (17.5%), KOGAS (10%) and OPIC (5%), working with long-term strategic partners Technip and Samsung Heavy Industries (the Technip Samsung Consortium).
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