Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, the largest offshore floating facility ever built, left the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea and sailed to Australia, Shell announced on Thursday.
The company said that the facility, constructed by Technip Samsung Consortium, is being towed to North West Australia, where the next phase of the project will begin, marking a significant milestone for the project.
On arrival at the Prelude offshore gas field which is 475 kilometres north-north east of Broome, Western Australia, pre-installed mooring chains will be lifted from the seabed and secured to the facility, Shell explained and once secure, the hook-up and commissioning process will begin.
'Prelude FLNG is an important project in Shell’s portfolio. It will provide liquefied natural gas for customers around the world and generate cash flow that will help drive the performance of Shell’s Integrated Gas business,' the company said.
'The safe and reliable start-up of Prelude’s operations will be the project team’s focus throughout the next phase,' the company noted, adding that cash flow from the project is expected in 2018.
The 600,000 tonnes facility's production capacity is 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, according to Shell.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr