Shell’s giant Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) vessel offshore northwest Australia is expected to be out of operation for most of Q1, chief executive Ben Van Beurden told reporters following the company’s quarterly results.
Following an electrical fault discovered in one of the battery systems associated with the uninterrupted power supply in December, he said the vessel – the size of 175 Olympic swimming pools – “is going through some teething troubles, but bearing in mind this is a unique asset of course, quite a unique challenge as you can imagine,” he said.
“We need to resolve these issues comprehensively and carefully before we restart,” he said.
“It’s not been made easy because of the pandemic – it’s a remote facility, it’s difficult to get people in, and they need to quarantine for weeks before they go on board, so these problems compound the issue a little bit,” he added.
Power problems on Shell’s Prelude FLNG vessel risked the “catastrophic failure” of parts of the ship’s structure, according to a report by Australia’s offshore regulator.
On 23 December, the Australian offshore regulator NOPSEMA ordered Shell (LSE:RDSA) to stop production at its Prelude FLNG unit until the energy major could demonstrate the giant floater’s ability to recover power and services safely.
In early December, Shell temporarily suspended liquefied natural gas (LNG) production at Prelude FLNG due to a fire onboard the facility following a power outage.
The shutdown halted the 11-month production streak Shell’s Prelude was on, after being offline for most of 2020 due to various technical issues.
The FLNG unit achieved its nameplate production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes per year of LNG in mid-2021 for the first time since it shipped its first cargo in June 2019.
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