THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Ross Kelly
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
OCTOBER 7, 2009
SYDNEY (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) said Thursday it has commenced early-stage design work on what could be the world’s first operational floating liquefied natural gas platform.
A draft environmental impact statement for the project will be released for public comment on Monday, a Shell spokeswoman said.
The US$5 billion plant, which would have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tons of LNG a year, would be fed by the Anglo-Dutch major’s Prelude and Concerto gas discoveries in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia state.
Floating LNG is increasingly being considered as a way to commercialize stranded gas resources too small to support the construction of onshore LNG terminals and their associated pipeline infrastructure.
Shell’s move could cause concern for the dozens of other companies planning to build onshore LNG facilities in Australia and Papua New Guinea by adding to fears of a regional LNG supply glut.
As to timing, Shell said it has not yet made a final investment decision on the project but that it is currently in the front-end engineering and design phase. The spokeswoman said it isn’t company policy for Shell to publicly disclose investment decision timetables.
Its move is unsurprising, with the multinational oil and gas producer having already indicated on several occasions that the Prelude field is a strong contender to host a floating LNG facility.
In July, Shell awarded a contract to a consortium of France’s Technip SA (13170.FR) and Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co. (010140.SE) to build a US$5 billion floating LNG facility, with an option to order nine more over the next 15 years.
According to an application lodged by Shell in April 2008 with Australia’s federal environment department, Shell said it was considering a 3.5 million tons a year floating LNG facility for Prelude to be operational by 2012.
It confirmed Thursday that the facility would be about 480 meters long, 75 meters wide and weigh about 600,000 metric tons.
Houston-based energy consultancy Poten & Partners said recently that Australia could accommodate the world’s first large-scale floating liquefied natural gas plant – but likely after 2015.
Poten & Partners Manager Asia Pacific Daryl Houghton said Australia’s relatively calm seas and stable political and fiscal environment make it an attractive location to apply the technology.
Santos Ltd. (STO.AU) last month formed a joint venture with GDF SUEZ to build a floating LNG platform near Shell’s Prelude field.
Adelaide-based Santos has said the partnership won’t build the project until after Santos’ coal seam gas LNG joint venture at Gladstone in Queensland state ships its first LNG in 2014. Shell also has plans to build an LNG plant at Gladstone, for which it is also targeting first gas in 2014.
Poten & Partners’ Houghton said the world’s first floating LNG project is likely to be a large-scale project built by an established energy major like Shell.
But he said a smaller scale project run by a company such as Norway’s Flex LNG Ltd. (FLNG.NO) could happen a bit sooner.
“But so far not one of those projects are firmed up to the extent that you would feel confident about it happening,” he said.
Flex LNG has an agreement with Samsung Heavy to buy four LNG-producing ships for delivery by the end of 2011.
Citigroup said in July that expenditure on floating LNG facilities is forecast to reach US$27 billion between 2009 and 2015, quoting independent research firm Douglas Westwood.
“Shell is excited to be progressing with (floating LNG) technology, which has the potential to unlock some of Australia’s stranded gas reserves that have previously been considered uneconomic to develop because of their small size or distance from shore,” Shell Executive Director Upstream International Malcolm Brinded said in a statement Thursday.
-By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; [email protected]
(Alex Wilson in Melbourne contributed to this article)
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
