You are here:

Floating LNG

The massive hull of Shell’s Prelude is floated from its South Korean dry dock. (photo)
Nearly half a kilometre long and
weighing more than 200,000 tonnes,
Shell Prelude’s massive hull is floated
from the South Korean dry dock where
it was built.

Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) is the latest in a line of Shell achievements in developing new technologies for the oil and gas industry. Moving the production and processing out to sea where the gas is found is a major innovation that brings more energy resources within reach. It is an exceptional example of developing and deploying both innovative thinking and technology. We believe that FLNG will enable the development of gas resources ranging from clusters of smaller more remote fields to potentially larger fields via multiple facilities. This can mean faster, cheaper, more flexible development and deployment strategies for resources that were previously uneconomic, or constrained by technical or other challenges.

The Prelude FLNG facility is now under construction in South Korea, with the massive hull substructure floated out of dry-dock in November 2013. The topsides, the equipment that will process and liquefy the gas, and turret, will be installed on the hull as the project progresses in coming years.

In September 2013, Woodside (Operator) announced that the Browse joint venturers had adopted Shell FLNG technology as the development concept for the Browse gas fields, and that Basis of Design (BoD) was underway. Shell will provide its project delivery capability and Floating LNG technology to support delivery of the BoD project phase. The facilities would be based on Shell’s established FLNG design, which underpins the Prelude FLNG project.

Shell’s Floating LNG technology can bring significant long term, sustainable jobs as well as providing local employment and business opportunities.