Shell green light for floating LNG facility
20 May 2011
London – Shell has decided to go ahead with building the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility – the Prelude Floating LNG project in Australia. The group said it is now set to start detailed design and construction of the facility in a shipyard in South Korea.
Moored 200km out to sea, the FLNG facility will produce gas from offshore fields, and liquefy it onboard by cooling. The 488-metre long FLNG facility will weigh around 600kt, including 260kt of steel.
The FLNG technology will allow us to develop offshore gas fields that otherwise would be too costly to develop, said Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s executive director, upstream international.
“Our decision to go ahead with this project is a true breakthrough for the LNG industry, giving it a significant boost to help meet the world’s growing demand for the cleanest-burning fossil fuel,” he claimed.
The facility has been designed to withstand the severest cyclones - Category 5. Ocean-going LNG carriers will offload liquefied gas, chilled to minus 162 Celsius and shrunk in volume by 600 times, and other products, directly from the facility out at sea for delivery to markets worldwide. Until now, the liquefaction of offshore gas has always involved piping the gas to a land-based plant.
The FLNG facility will tap around 3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of resources contained in the Prelude gas field. Shell discovered the Prelude gas field in 2007.
Some 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of expected production from Prelude should underpin at least 5.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquids, comprising 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of liquefied petroleum gas.
The FLNG facility will stay permanently moored at the Prelude gas field for 25 years, and in later development phases should produce from other fields in the area where Shell has an interest.
Shell aims to develop more FLNG projects globally, Brinded commenting: “Our design can accommodate a range of gas fields, and our strategic partnership with Technip and Samsung should enable us to apply it progressively faster for future projects. We see opportunities around the world to work on other FLNG projects with governments, energy companies and customers.”
