It is to me an example where common sense has been put aside and the herd followed the leader ‘we need elephants’. I sincerely hope for Shell that Prelude does not turn out to be yet another white elephant. …this spirit of ‘Olympic targets, Moonshots, if you can think it you can do it’ has also led to disasters for Shell USA in Alaska, huge write offs in the USA on shaleoil, a nonfunctional EP Europe when it was launched, the reserves crisis of Shell, the cost overruns in Sakhalin, Pearl and Kashagan by a factor 3-8 etc etc.
Introduction by John Donovan
On 10 January we published an article under the headline: Royal Dutch Shell Prelude to disaster?
It was based on information received from a Prelude insider source voicing deep concern over the safety of the construction of Shell’s Prelude FLNG flagship vessel, said to be the biggest ship in the world.
Since then, further information has been obtained, including more information from the same whistleblower.
Shell has to a large extent staked it future on this mega project.