VIDEO: Prelude FLNG milestones in 2016

Shell has shared a video representing several milestones achieved in 2016 during the construction of its giant Prelude FLNG project.

The company is building the floating LNG unit in South Korea. Once complete it will be moved offshore W. Australia where it will produce gas from the Prelude field, and then turn it into LNG.

According to Shell, the facility is longer than four soccer fields, displacing six times as much water as the largest aircraft carrier.

Once complete, the Prelude FLNG facility will be the biggest floating production facility in the world.

The final investment decision for the project was taken by Shell in May 2011, with construction of the FLNG unit hull starting in 2013.

According to a recent report by LNG World News, the Prelude FLNG, to be moored in Australia’s Browse Basin, will start production in 2017.

It will produce at 5.3 million tonnes of liquids per year of which 3.6 of LNG, 1.3 of condensate and 0.4  of liquefied petroleum gas.

Below are some interesting Prelude FLNG project numbers, as provided by Shell:

>600

engineers worked on the facility’s design options

>200km (125 miles)

is the distance from the Prelude field to the nearest land

4 soccer fields,

laid end to end, would be shorter than the facility’s deck

175 Olympic-sized swimming pools

could hold the same amount of liquid as the facility’s storage tanks

6,700 horsepower

thrusters will be used to position the facility

50 million liters

of cold water will be drawn from the ocean every hour to help cool the natural gas

6 of the largest aircraft carriers

would displace the same amount of water as the facility

93 meters (305 feet)

is the height of the turret that runs through the facility, secured to the seabed by mooring lines

-162° Celsius (-260° Fahrenheit)

is the temperature at which natural gas turns into LNG

1/600

is the factor by which a volume of natural gas shrinks when it is turned into LNG

117% of Hong Kong’s annual natural gas demand

could be met by the facility’s annual LNG production

20-25 years

is the time the Prelude FLNG facility will stay at the location to develop gas fields