Shell says Prelude FLNG to start production in 2018

Shell’s giant Prelude FLNG facility will come on stream offshore Western Australia next year, Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl said.

“Prelude remains on schedule… We’ve indicated that start-up was in 2018 and we remain confident in that timing,” Uhl told journalists on a conference call on May 4 after discussing the company’s first-quarter results.

The Hague-based LNG giant Shell has never been clear on when it expects to start producing chilled gas from the giant floating facility to be located at the Prelude gas field off Australia.

However, the company’s Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said at an event last year that Shell expects “real material cash from Prelude in 2018.”

Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility is the largest of its kind with 488m in length and 74m in width.

It is currently being built at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea, where an incident took place on May 1.

Six people died and more than 20 were injured when a crane collapsed during the construction of an oil platform for French energy company Total.

Uhl expressed condolences to everyone impacted by the “unfortunate incident”, adding that it did not have anything to do with Shell’s assets.

The incident is expected not to have any effect on the construction of the Prelude FLNG.

“The project itself is progressing well and the timeline for 2018 remains a good timeline,” she said.

The Prelude FLNG facility is expected to stay moored at the Prelude gas field for 25 years. It is designed to produce 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG for export.

LNG World News Staff