Technip & Samsung to begin construction of world’s first FLNG facility

Shell has given notice to a Technip Samsung Consortium (TSC) to proceed with the construction of the first FLNG facility in the world. TSC will provide engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the FLNG facility Shell will deploy at its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia.

Moored far out at sea, some 200 km from the nearest land, the Prelude FLNG facility will produce gas from offshore fields and liquefy it onboard by cooling. Detailed design of the innovative facility will be undertaken by TSC at Technip’s operating centers in Paris, France, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and it will be built at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, Korea, where the Notice to Proceed signing ceremony took place.

Mr Thierry Pilenko, Chairman and CEO of Technip, commented, “This great project is a real breakthrough for the energy industry and a true revolution for offshore natural gas developments. Technip is extremely pleased and proud to bring all the expertise, know-how and skills of its three business segments -Subsea, Offshore and Onshore- all of which will be instrumental in the success of Prelude FLNG. Within our long term relationship with Shell and Samsung Heavy Industries, we hope that this project will be the first of many.”

The Shell Prelude FLNG facility will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world, with 488 m from bow to stern - longer than four soccer fields laid end to end. When fully loaded, it will weigh around 600,000 tonnes – roughly six times as much as the largest aircraft carrier. Some 260,000 tonnes of that weight will consist of steel – around five times the amount of steel used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. FLNG is a revolutionary innovation that will allow the production, liquefaction, storage and transfer of LNG at sea, helping to open up new offshore natural gas fields that are currently too costly or difficult to develop.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/31052011/technip_and_samsung_to_begin_construction_of_world%E2%80%99s_first_flng_facility/