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In Australia, Shell signals new era for LNG

In Australia, Shell signals new era for LNG

By Daniel J. Graeber: July 25, 2017

July 25 (UPI) — The arrival of a floating liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Australia signals a milestone for the region as an energy hub, Royal Dutch Shell said.

The company’s Prelude vessel, its first-ever floating platform for LNG, arrived off the coast of Western Australia, after leaving its South Korean shipyard in late June.

Large for a floating facility, it’s one-quarter the size of an equivalent inland plant. With LNG emerging in market share because of its diverse deliverability options, Shell said the Prelude FLNG vessel opens up new doors in new countries.

For Australia, the company said the vessel will keep 260 local workers on board and create more than 1,500 jobs during the commissioning phase.

“Prelude’s arrival is a clear demonstration of Shell’s long standing commitment to investment and development in Australia – delivering significant economic benefits to the nation,” Zoe Yujnovich, the company’s regional head, said in a statement.

The vessel will allow Shell to pull natural gas from seven production wells at the Prelude field off the coast of Western Australia. At 3.6 million tons of LNG expected each year, the facility can process an amount equivalent to Hong Kong’s entire demand for natural gas. At 1,600 feet long by 240 feet wide, it’s the largest offshore facility of its kind ever built.

Yujnovich added that the arrival of Prelude signals a new era for the country’s LNG export industry.

Earlier this week, Sen. Matt Canavan, the natural resources minister for northern Australia, said LNG producers were given formal notice that 2018, the same year Prelude starts production, could be a year that would trigger a domestic natural gas security initiative.

“The mechanism enables the Australian government to take action to secure domestic gas supply because of its importance to the Australian economy, at the same time bearing in mind the gas export industry’s long-term viability,” he said in a statement.

The measure gives the government the right to intervene and limit exports in order to keep the domestic market adequately supplied.

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One Comment

  1. Bill Campbell says:

    For hazardous substances plants Size Matters, it’s crucial.

    The size re surface deck area of the Prelude vessel wrt an onshore plant continues to be misstated, purposefully I assume. Even if the total deck of Prelude was used exclusively for the LNG process ignoring area taken up by Accomodation, Turret etc we have total of 3.6 Hectares. On average LNG land plants with equivalent throughputs are 20 times (not four times) on average larger than the 3.6 Hectares provided on the Prelude deck. As an example of this that you can check out easily on the web is that Woodside Energy has allocated 80 Hectares for its onshore Pluto LNG site and facilities or 22.2 times the total area of the Prelude deck. I took up the propaganda on size with Shell Australia a few years ago, they are the regular publisher of these alternative facts, asking them to clarify where in the world was there a LNG plant onshore occupying just 14 Hectares (4 times the Prelude total deck space).

    Still await a reply because folks there ain’t.

    That size matter is crucial to risk, especially the escalation of say a hydrocarbon event. On Prelude we do not have the geographical clearances required post Seveso to restrict escalation, on Prelude clearance between modules is as little as 2 metres not the 200 metres or more provided on land.

    Shell in continually downplaying the risks of Prelude is whistling in the dark, we all wish this project, a spectacular technical achievement by any World measure, well, but it does not bode well to continually downplay that FLNG is a very risky business.

    Bill