Trelleborg provides bearings for Shell’s Prelude FLNG

Trelleborg said its engineered products operation manufactured and delivered bearing solutions for Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility. 

According to the company’s statement, it has delivered 52 vertical elastomeric bearings and 156 horizontal bearings for use on the 13 modules onboard the facility, as well as 40 turret bogey bearings to enable natural movements of the turret.

Trelleborg’s elastomeric bearings are steel plate laminated and installed between the hull of the facility and its modules. They accommodate axial, shear and rotational movement to keep the modules safe from impact, damage and deformation. Similarly, they prevent the concentration of excessive strains and stresses around the mounting points of the modules and the hull caused by adverse sea and weather conditions, Trelleborg said.

The size of six aircraft carriers, Prelude is the world’s largest floating production facility. It will process natural gas collected from subsea wells 475 kilometers (almost 300 miles) offshore from Broome, Western Australia.

Once it arrives at the Prelude gas field it will be connected to the subsea system and when in operation, the Prelude FLNG facility will produce at least 5.3 million tonnes (mtpa) per annum of liquids: 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate (equivalent to 35,000 bbl/d) and 0.4 mtpa of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

LNG World News Staff