Contract awarded for Shell LNG production vessel

The LNG floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) will measure 488m length oa, which makes it the largest floating offshore facility yet. According to Samsung, the contract will expire September 30, 2016.

The decision to go ahead with the Prelude Floating LNG project was announced by Shell on 20 May, when the oil major said it was ready to “start detailed design and construction of what will be the world’s largest floating offshore facility, in a ship yard in South Korea.”

The LNG FPSO will be moored some 200km out to sea, and produce gas from offshore fields, and liquefy it onboard by cooling. The facility has been designed to withstand cyclones up to category 5. The company says that its FPSO technology will enable it to produce gas from fields that would otherwise be too costly to develop. Ocean-going LNG carriers will offload liquefied gas, chilled to minus 162 C and shrunk in volume by 600 times, and other products, directly from the facility at sea for delivery to markets worldwide. Until now, the liquefaction of offshore gas has involved piping the gas to a land-based plant.