A cooldown cargo has arrived at Shell's giant floating LNG production unit Prelude FLNG off the north-western coast of Australia.

Eikland Energy data service iGIS/LNG told TradeWinds that the 145,127-cbm Methane Heather Sally (built 2007) moored off the unit on Wednesday.

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The LNG carrier had previously loaded a cargo at the Donggi Senoro plant in Indonesia.

Sources working closely with Prelude said the shipment is due to be used for cooling down the FLNG's unit's tanks and equipment in preparation for its planned restart after what has been a prolonged period of shutdown.

One said the repair work onboard Prelude was completed slightly earlier than expected. But he added that testing will now need to be carried out as the unit fires up its LNG production again.

In October Shell said it was not planning to restart full production from Prelude the end of 2020.

The unit, which has the capacity to produce 3.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG, in addition to LPG and condensate output, has been offline since early this year after an electrical trip lead to a series of extensive investigations and repairs.

Cargo production was halted in February after the main electrical generator on the 600,000-tonne floater tripped and then a back-up system followed suit.

Prelude FLNG snapshot
  • Vessel type: Floating LNG unit
  • LNG production capacity: 3.6 mtpa
  • Condensate production capacity: 1.3 mtpa
  • LPG production capacity: 0.4 mtpa
  • Builder: Samsung Heavy Industries
  • Topsides: Technip
  • Overall length: 488 metres
  • Beam: 74 metres

TradeWinds was told that during repair work it was found that seawater had got into the mass of extremely complex electrical wiring on board the floater, causing corrosion and complicating the job of restoring power systems.

Market observers have also commented that with the demand hit and crewing complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic there will have been less incentive to rush repairs to get the remote offshore unit back online.

Prelude has exported just eight LNG cargoes since its start-up in June 2019.

The unit — the world's largest floating structure — is located about 475 km north-northeast of Broome in Western Australia.

Shell controls a 67.5% stake in the Prelude FLNG project, with Japan’s Inpex holding 17.5%, South Korean state utility Korea Gas Corp 10% and CPC of Taiwan 5%.