If we could raise your about 600,000 tons and stand it up, the Prelude FLNG would tower over the very Empire State Building. This is no small thing, especially when you consider that it is not a skyscraper, nor a tower, nor anything even remotely like it: the Prelude is an enormous platform of liquefied gas, so large, so enormous, that it is the largest of its kind and often presents as the largest floating structure never built.
Mimbres of course has.
It is not a boat strictly speaking and in a way it is more designed for operate as an island that as a ship; But with its almost half a kilometer in length, the Prelude even exceeds the size of the Seawise Giant, the 458.4-meter-long megatanker built in the 1970s and which reigned for decades on the seas as the largest ship on the globe.
the titan of the seas
The Prelude’s business card impresses. The platform of Royal Dutch Shellstomach 488m long y 74 widepesa 600,000 tons with their full tanks; is capable of holding enough liquid to fill 175 olympic swimming pools and it could —or so its managers say, at least— withstand the onslaught of a category five cyclone. In addition to being long, the platform is high: [según precisa la propia Shell](C:\Users\PC PREGO\Desktop\Textos\u), the turret that crosses the installation reaches 93 meters.
Its mission consists of processing natural gas that it collects from the submarine deposits located about 475 kilometers off the coast of Broome, Western Australia. There it is expected to remain more or less between two and three decades. On the platform the gas cools to -162ºC to convert it into LNG and facilitate its storage and transport. Then customers are transferred with boats.
The company expects it to generate about 3.6 million tons annual liquefied natural gas, LNG. With its production alone, the company estimates, the mega-platform could generate the necessary supply to more than cover —by about 117%— the request from Hong Kong.
The gigantic gas structure is not only important for its stunning size; It is also the first deployment of Shell’s FLNG technology. Once finished, Prelude he positioned himself in his “place of brought” in 2017 already end of 2018 started and their production work.
Since then its history has not been easy and in a certain way it confirms, as [precisa Journal of Petroleum Technology](https://jpt.spe.org/the-many-growing-pains-of-shells-prelude-flng-continue#:~:text=At%20488%20m%20(1%2C601%20ft,help% 20explain%20its%20growing%20pains.), that the role of pioneer is not usually an easy role to carry. After its premiere, four years ago, Prelude has had to face several incidents. Perhaps the one with the greatest repercussions was the one registered in December 2021, when it suffered a fire that led to a power cut on board, where around 200 people live.The result: NOPSEMA, the Australian authority on the matter, ordered it to stop production. The hiatus lasted several months..
The million dollar question – never better said – is: How much has it cost to shape a titan like Prelude? Shell has not revealed the exact amount, but some experts speak of an overall cost of the project of $17 billion. In 2011 Samsung, in charge of the construction, pointed out that the boat would be around 3,000 million. In his “adventure” plus shellwith 67.5%, are also Inpex from Japan (17.5%), Kogas from South Korea (10%) and CPC Corp from Taiwan (5%).
His challenge now is to show that his ability is along with its size.
And open the way.
Images | Shell
