Page 10 - GLNG Week 12 2022
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GLNG OCEANIA GLNG
Shell cleared to restart Prelude
FLNG by Australian regulator
PROJECTS & AUSTRALIA’S National Offshore Petroleum NOPSEMA ordered Shell to keep LNG
COMPANIES Safety and Environmental Management Author- production offline until it can “demonstrate to
ity (NOPSEMA) on March 18 gave approval for NOPSEMA’s satisfaction that the facility can
Shell’s Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) vessel to safely recover essential power and associated
resume operations. The 488-metre ship – the essential services following a loss of power, and
world’s largest FLNG vessel – experienced a total that the safety systems and essential support sys-
power outage in early December 2021 and was tems operate to maintain safety of personnel”.
subsequently ordered to suspend operations by Shell has since had to provide evidence that
the regulator. the vessel can resume work without risk to the
It is not yet clear when LNG and liquids pro- health and safety of the crew. Shell has since
duction will restart. Prelude was years behind According to the WA Today newspaper, the
schedule with its initial start-up and made its trouble began “when a small fire triggered an had to provide
first LNG shipment in July 2019. The vessel has a emergency shutdown that depressurised the
capacity to produce 5.3mn tonnes per year (tpy) Prelude’s complex plant by sending huge quanti- evidence that
of liquids, which includes 3.6mn tpy of LNG, ties of gas to a flare tower to be burnt”. The daily
1.3mn tpy of condensate and 400,000 tpy of LPG. said that with no gas to generate power, Prelude the vessel can
Prelude is located in the Browse Basin, 475 turned to three diesel backup units that failed to resume work
km north-west of Broome, Western Australia. work properly. While the fire was quickly extin-
The facility was built in South Korea by Samsung guished, the numerous complex safety systems without risk to
Heavy Industries and cost $20bn to bring into on board failed to provide reliable power. “Crew
operation. Shell holds 67.5% in the vessel’s joint reported temperatures as high as 45 degrees in the health and
partnership, with Japan’s Inpex owning a 17.5% their living quarters, with humidity making it
stake. Korea Gas (KOGAS) holds 10% and Tai- difficult to walk on the wet floors. Some crew safety of the
wan’s CPC has the remaining 5%. worked 30-hour shifts to fix a cascade of techni- crew.
Prelude experienced a total loss of power on cal problems,” the newspaper reported.
December 2, and was unable to restore power Circumstances led to the evacuation of more
adequately over a period of three days, prompt- than half of the 300 crew members, with several
ing a team from NOPSEMA to visit the vessel having to be treated for heat exhaustion.
and subsequently order it to shut down. A spokesperson for Shell said: “We will con-
The event also caused a stoppage for process- tinue to work methodically through the stages
ing equipment needed to effectively manage the in the process to prepare for hydrocarbon restart
LNG stored onboard the vessel. with safety and stability foremost in mind.”
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2022
