Shell’s Prelude FLNG arrives in Australia, a new era for the LNG Industry
Shell Australia has confirmed that its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility has arrived in Australian waters. The floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility arrived at its location, the Prelude field, 475km (295 miles) north-north east of Broome, Western Australia, where the next phase of the project begins. Once in operation, the project will deliver LNG to customers around the world.
Prelude is the first deployment of Shell’s FLNG technology, that will see a 488 metre long floating facility extracting and liquefying gas at sea, before it is exported to customers around the globe. The project is located approximately 475km north-north east of Broome in Western Australia.
Shell Australia Chairman Zoe Yujnovich said the arrival of the Prelude FLNG facility signalled a new era for the Australian LNG export industry, with the first floating liquefaction facility deployed in local waters.
“Prelude’s arrival is a clear demonstration of Shell’s long standing commitment to investment and development in Australia – delivering significant economic benefits to the nation.”
Ms Yujnovich said Shell had awarded a majority of Prelude contracts to Australian contractors, including the contract awarded to Australian engineering company Monadelphous for maintenance and modification services valued at $200 million.
“Prelude is an Australian project and Shell has recognised how important it is to build strong partnerships with Australian industry,” she said.
“To develop and maintain a safe, high performance culture on the facility, Shell has partnered with South Metropolitan TAFE in Western Australia to develop specific training for Prelude technicians.
“One hundred and fifty technicians have been trained across a broad range of critical skills, including helicopter landing and refuelling skills, rigging, scaffolding and first aid.
“West Australian based company CIVMEC, a construction and engineering services provider, constructed the four massive anchor piles for Prelude’s subsea flowlines from their facility in Henderson.”
The Prelude project will employ 260 local workers on board the facility during operations and create over a 1500 jobs during the hook-up and commissioning phase of the project. Shell expects to see cashflow from the project during 2018.
Discover more about Prelude FLNG:
Location: Browse Basin, Australia
Depth: ~250 metres
Category: Floating liquefied natural gas
Interest: Shell 67.5%, INPEX 17.5%, CPC 5%, KOGAS 10%
Fields: Prelude and potentially other Shell natural gas assets in the region
FLNG facility production capacity: At least 5.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquids: 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of liquefied petroleum gas
Prelude FLNG in numbers:
Longer than four soccer fields and displacing six times as much water as the largest aircraft carrier, Prelude FLNG is the largest offshore floating facility ever built.
- 600 engineers worked on the facility’s design options
- 200km (125 miles) is the distance from the Prelude field to the nearest land
- 4 soccer fields, laid end to end, would be shorter than the facility’s deck
- 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools could hold the same amount of liquid as the facility’s storage tanks
- 6,700 horsepower thrusters will be used to position the facility
- 50 million litres of cold water will be drawn from the ocean every hour to help cool the natural gas
- 6 of the largest aircraft carriers would displace the same amount of water as the facility
- 93 metres (305 feet) is the height of the turret that runs through the facility, secured to the seabed by mooring lines
- 162° Celsius (-260° Fahrenheit) is the temperature at which natural gas turns into LNG
- 1/600 is the factor by which a volume of natural gas shrinks when it is turned into LNG
- 117% of Hong Kong’s annual natural gas demand could be met by the facility’s annual LNG production
- 20-25 years is the time the Prelude FLNG facility will stay at the location to develop gas fields
