It is the last wave of eight LNG projects built in the country over the last decade and has been costlier than first estimated, however is expected to cement Australia’s lead as the world’s biggest LNG exporter. Shell’s Prelude FLNG Facility recently reached a significant milestone, with gas introduced onboard. The Gallina, an LNG Carrier from Singapore, carried out the import, cooling down the tanks and process equipment and pipework with gas. With gas onboard, Prelude’s utilities can now switch to run on gas rather than diesel.
Prelude is expected to have an annual LNG production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes, 1.3 million tonnes a year of condensate and 400,000 tonnes a year of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
It is the world’s largest floating production structure, with the facility’s storage tanks deep enough to hold the water of 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The FLNG extracts, liquefies and stores gas at sea before it is exported around the globe.
'First LNG cargo is still several weeks assuming all proceeds as planned, but the timing of first cargo and pace of ramp-up is still subject to technical risk,' said Saul Kavonic, energy analyst at Credit Suisse in Sydney.
'Given Prelude’s novelty, geographic conditions and challenges, it may be subject to greater risk to timeline from wellhead production to first cargo than an average LNG project,' he said. 'We expect Shell to seek to get it done right, rather than rush things.'