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14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JANUARY 2014 The 488-m-long-hull of Shell’s Pre- lude fl oating liquefi ed natural gas (FLNG) facility has been fl oated out of the dry dock at the Samsung Heavy In- dustries (SHI) yard in Geoje, South Ko- rea, where the facility is currently under construction. Prelude will unlock new energy resources offshore and produce approximately 3.6 million metric tons of liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) per an- num (mtpa) to meet growing demand, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG. and to remain on location for ap- proximately 25 years. Once complete, Prelude FLNG will be the largest fl oating facility ever built, longer than four soccer fi elds laid end to end and longer than the Empire State Building is tall. The FLNG facility will weigh more than 600,000 metric tons fully loaded, displacing the same amount of water as six of the world’s largest air- craft carriers. “Making FLNG a reality is no simple feat,” said Matthias Bichsel, Shell Proj- ects & Technology Director. “A project of this complexity – both in size and in- genuity – harnesses the best of engineer- ing, design, manufacturing and supply chain expertise from around the world. Getting to this stage of construction, giv- en that we only cut the fi rst steel a year ago, is down to the expert team we have ensuring that the project’s critical dimen- sions of safety, quality, cost and schedule are delivered.” FLNG will allow Shell to produce natural gas at sea, turn it into liquefi ed natural gas and then transfer it directly to the ships that will transport it to customers. It will enable the devel- opment of gas resources ranging from clusters of smaller more remote fi elds to potentially larger fi elds via multiple fa- cilities where, for a range of reasons, an onshore development is not viable. This can mean faster, cheaper, more fl exible development and deployment strategies for resources that were previously un- economic, or constrained by technical or other risks. Prelude FLNG is the fi rst deployment of Shell’s FLNG technology and will operate in a remote basin around 475 km north-east of Broome, Western Australia for 25 years. The facility will remain onsite during all weather events, having been designed to withstand a cat- egory 5 cyclone. Mike F os ter Vice President, General Manager mfos ter@s enes comarine.com (401) 226-1042 cell K yr yl l K aray ev P.E. Repair Yard Manager, Dry Dock Master k k aray ev @s enes comarine.com (401) 639-9325 cell ) O R 6 F D Q , Q V W U X P H Q W & R , Q F _ 6 H D W W O H : $ 8 6 $ _ H P D L O V D O H V # I O R V F D Q F R P I R U T X R W H V R ead the C ase Study Z Z Z I O R V F D Q F R P OFFSHORE UPDATE Shell Floats Hull for World’s Largest Floating Facility Photo: Shell MR #1 (10-17).indd 14 1/7/2014 12:25:48 PM
