Four tugs will take 30 days to tow Shell’s huge floating liquefaction unit Prelude FLNG from Samsung Heavy Industries yard in South Korea to its location some 200-kilometres off the northern Australian coast.
In a joint presentation given at the LNG 18 meeting in Perth Shell project director for Prelude FLNG and Technip executive project director Shell FLNG Alain Poincheval said two 210-tonne bollard tugs will be positioned fore and aft to undertake the 3,000-nautical mile voyage.
Around 100 personnel will be onboard the unit - the largest floating structure ever built - during the tow.
The partners did not give a date for sail away and delegates were given no opportunity to ask questions on this paper.
Singapore’s PACC Offshore Services Holdings (POSH) was awarded the tow job for the unit at the start of this year.
On arrival five tugs will be used during hook-up including Technip’s construction vessel Deep Orient which will pull in the risers and one giant umbilical that will connect the unit to the wells – a process which will take between 20-25 days.
The presenters said Prelude’s location can experience very heavy currents with winds often blowing from the opposite direction and times of very poor visibility, something the companies have experienced during drilling operations on site.
After the hook up the on site team will undertake berthing trials and take in an LNG cargo to cooldown the cargo tanks and onboard systems.
An LPG shipment will be brought in soon after to cooldown the LPG tanks and to make up the early refrigerant for the liquefaction process.
Reymert said that as soon as possible the unit will be switched over from diesel to using fuel gas from the LNG tanks.
Prelude FLNG will produce 3.6-mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG.
