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Released December 12, 2013 | PERTH, AUSTRALIA
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Prelude, the largest vessel ever built, was recently floated for the first time at Samsung Heavy Industries' (Seoul, Korea) Geoje Shipyard in South Korea. At 1,600 feet (488 meters) in length and 240 feet (74 meters) in width, the hull of the Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Plant is longer than either the Empire State Building or the Petronas Towers are tall, and was built using five times as much steel as was required for the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The world's largest aircraft carriers, such as the USS George Washington, displace about 97,000 tonnes. The Prelude vessel will be more than six times that size when complete, at more than 600,000 tonnes. Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDSA) (The Hague, Netherlands) plans for the vessel to be anchored off the coast of Western Australia for about 25 years and to produce LNG from the Prelude and Concerto gas fields.
Shell says that safety has been its top priority in designing Prelude, as it will be moored more than 77 miles (125 kilometers) from Australia's northwest coast, in what is commonly known as the Indian Ocean's "cyclone alley."
The plant will produce about 3.6 million tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG, along with 5.3 million tonnes per year of liquids and other hydrocarbons, a fraction of some land-based LNG plants. It may be the biggest vessel ever to take to the seas, but it takes up just a quarter of the space a land-based LNG plant of a similar capacity, because components are stacked on top of each other.
The vessel is far from complete, with the topside LNG Facility still to be constructed. Nonetheless, Shell is already talking about building a bigger version.
"We will move bigger and move into more extreme environments. We are designing a larger facility," said Bruce Steenson, Shell's general manager of integrated gas programmes and innovation.
Prelude is the prototype for the yet-unproven FLNG technology. If it is an economic success, gas fields worldwide that are too far out to sea and too small to develop any other way could become viable for LNG production.
View Project Report - 300011391
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
The world's largest aircraft carriers, such as the USS George Washington, displace about 97,000 tonnes. The Prelude vessel will be more than six times that size when complete, at more than 600,000 tonnes. Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDSA) (The Hague, Netherlands) plans for the vessel to be anchored off the coast of Western Australia for about 25 years and to produce LNG from the Prelude and Concerto gas fields.
Shell says that safety has been its top priority in designing Prelude, as it will be moored more than 77 miles (125 kilometers) from Australia's northwest coast, in what is commonly known as the Indian Ocean's "cyclone alley."
The plant will produce about 3.6 million tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG, along with 5.3 million tonnes per year of liquids and other hydrocarbons, a fraction of some land-based LNG plants. It may be the biggest vessel ever to take to the seas, but it takes up just a quarter of the space a land-based LNG plant of a similar capacity, because components are stacked on top of each other.
The vessel is far from complete, with the topside LNG Facility still to be constructed. Nonetheless, Shell is already talking about building a bigger version.
"We will move bigger and move into more extreme environments. We are designing a larger facility," said Bruce Steenson, Shell's general manager of integrated gas programmes and innovation.
Prelude is the prototype for the yet-unproven FLNG technology. If it is an economic success, gas fields worldwide that are too far out to sea and too small to develop any other way could become viable for LNG production.
View Project Report - 300011391
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
