Shell floats hull for world’s largest floating facility

Offshore staff

LONDON – The 488-m-long (1,602-ft-long) hull of Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility has moved out of the dry dock at the Samsung Heavy Industries yard in Geoje, South Korea, where the facility has been under construction.

Once complete, the Prelude FLNG will be the largest floating facility ever built and will produce 3.6 million metric tons (4 million tons) of LNG per annum.

The FLNG will allow Shell to produce natural gas at sea, turn it into LNG, and then transfer it to ships for transport. The facility will also enable the development of gas resources from fields where onshore infrastructure is not viable.

The Prelude FLNG represents the first deployment of Shell’s FLNG technology, and it will operate in a remote basin 475 km (295 mi) northeast of Broome, Western Australia. The facility has been designed to withstand a Category 5 cyclone.

Shell is the operator of the Prelude FLNG, which is a joint venture with INPEX (17.5%), KOGAS (10%), and OPIC (5%). The company is working on the project with long-term strategic partners Technip and Samsung Heavy Industries in consortium.

12/03/2013