Shell tells Technip, Samsung to begin construction of Australia floating LNG facility
Shell has instructed the Technip Samsung consortium (TSC) to proceed with construction of the first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in the world, officials said on Tuesday.
TSC will provide engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the FLNG facility, which Shell will deploy at its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia.
Moored far out at sea, some 200 kilometres from the nearest land, the Prelude FLNG facility will produce gas from offshore fields and liquefy it onboard by cooling.
Detailed design of the innovative facility will be undertaken by TSC at Technip’s operating centers in Paris, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and it will be built at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, Korea, where the notice to proceed signing ceremony took place.
Thierry Pilenko, CEO of Technip, said: “This great project is a real breakthrough for the energy industry and a true revolution for offshore natural gas developments. Technip is extremely pleased and proud to bring all the expertise, know-how and skills of its three business segments -subsea, offshore and onshore- all of which will be instrumental in the success of Prelude FLNG. Within our long term relationship with Shell and Samsung Heavy Industries, we hope that this project will be the first of many.”
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
The Shell Prelude FLNG facility will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world, with 488 meters from bow to stern - longer than four soccer fields laid end to end.
When fully loaded, it will weigh around 600,000 tonnes – roughly six times as much as the largest aircraft carrier. Some 260,000 tonnes of that weight will consist of steel – around five times the amount of steel used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Floating LNG is a revolutionary innovation that will allow the production, liquefaction, storage and transfer of LNG at sea, helping to open up new offshore natural gas fields that are currently too costly or difficult to develop.
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