The world’s first floating liquefied natural gas facility has been floated out of a dry dock for the first time.
At 488-metres-long – longer than four football fields laid end-to-end – the Prelude will be the largest floating facility to date.
Currently being built at South Korea’s Geoje shipyard, the Prelude will produce natural gas at sea, turn it into liquefied natural gas and then transfer it directly to ships for transport.
Production from the facility, due to begin operation in 2017, is estimated at approximately 3.6million tonnes of LNG per year from a Western Australia basin, around 475 kilometres north-east of Broome.
It is expected to stay on location for around 25 years.
“Getting to this stage of construction, given that we only cut the first steel a year ago, is down to the expert team we have ensuring that the project’s critical dimensions of safety, quality, cost and schedule are delivered,” said Matthias Bichsel, Shell projects and technology director.
The overall cost of the project is expected to exceed $7.3billion.
You can watch Shell’s video from Prelude FLNG’s first float below.
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