Lloyd’s Register Actively Involved in Prelude FLNG Project

Lloyd’s Register Actively Involved in Prelude FLNG Project

The world’s largest floating offshore facility, Prelude FLNG, is being built for the energy multinational, Shell. Lloyd’s Register has been actively involved on the project, ensuring it will operate safely and sustainably, and applying our FLNG expertise through classification, equipment certification and validation against performance standards.

When finished, the giant facility will be 488 metres long and 74 metres wide and will use more than 260,000 tonnes of steel – or more than five times the amount used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Shell Prelude FLNG facility is being constructed by the Technip Samsung Consortium at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea. When delivered, it will be moored at the Browse Basin, 200 kilometres off the north-west Australian coast, where it will turn gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and, thereafter, transfer it to ships which will carry it to market.

When fully equipped and with its cargo tanks full, the FLNG facility will weigh more than 600,000 tonnes. There will be more than 3,000 kilometres of electrical and instrumentation cables on the FLNG facility – the distance from Barcelona to Moscow.

To meet the world’s energy needs, shipping new supplies to market is crucial. “Making FLNG a reality is no simple feat,” said Shell’s Projects & Technology Director, Matthias Bichsel. “Shell is uniquely positioned to make it a success given our commercial capability; our LNG, offshore, deepwater and marine technology; and our proven ability to successfully deliver megaprojects.”

At the project’s peak, 5,000 people will be working on the construction of the FLNG facility and another 1,000 will be building the turret mooring system and subsea and wells equipment in other global locations.

[mappress]

Lloyd’s Register, January 14, 2013; Image: Shell