Final investment decision on floating LNG project

Moored far out to sea, some 200 km from the nearest land in Australia, the FLNG facility will produce gas from offshore fields, and liquefy it onboard by cooling.

Now detailed design and construction of the large floating offshore facility will be started in a ship yard in South Korea. From bow to stern, Shell's FLNG facility will be 488 m long and will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world, as Shell states. When fully equipped and with its storage tanks full, it will weigh around 600,000 t.

The facility has been designed to withstand the severest cyclones - those of Category 5. Ocean-going LNG carriers will offload liquefied gas, chilled to -162 degr. C 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.

Shell has progressed the Prelude FLNG project at a rapid pace, with first production of LNG expected some ten years after the gas was discovered. 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.