VIDEO: Prelude – Revolution in Natural Gas Production

Shell is building the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) processing ship which has the potential to revolutionise the way natural gas resources are developed.

It will help to unlock vital energy resources offshore, without the need to lay pipelines and build processing plants on land.

The first site to use Shell’s FLNG will be the Prelude gas field, 200 kilometres (around 125 miles) off Australia’s north-west coast.

Once complete, the facility will have decks measuring 488 by 74 metres, the length of more than four soccer fields.

With its cargo tanks full it will weigh roughly six times as much as the largest aircraft carrier.

Despite its impressive proportions, the facility is one-quarter the size of an equivalent plant on land. Engineers have designed components that will stack vertically to save space.

Three 6,700-horsepower thrusters will sit in the rear of the facility.

Two of these will operate at any time to turn the facility out of the wind and allow LNG carriers to pull safely alongside to load.

The facility’s storage tanks will be below deck. They can store up to 220,000 m3 of LNG, 90,000 m3 of LPG, and 126,000 m3 of condensate.

The total storage capacity is equivalent to around 175 Olympic swimming pools.

Take a look at how everything is made on the giant structure, one of the biggest man has ever sent to sea, being constructed at Samsung Heavy industries, Geoje Island, South Korea.

World Maritime News Staff, June 30th, 2014