Fire at Prelude LNG Construction Site in South Korea
Shell said a small fire occurred at the construction site in South Korea for its huge floating Prelude liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, with work resuming immediately and an investigation underway.
The incident would not have an impact on the delivery schedule, according to a source in South Korea.
Shell has declined to reveal the timetable or the budget for Prelude, based on a giant processing vessel being built in Samsung Heavy Industries' Geoje shipyard that will be towed to a gas field off the west Australia coast.
"Shell can confirm there was an incident on Prelude construction site last week that led to a small fire," according to a statement emailed to Reuters by Shell's Australian arm.
"Construction activity resumed immediately and the cause of the incident is being investigated," it said.
A source in South Korea familiar with the incident said there would be no impact on the project's delivery date.
It is the second recent incident involving LNG production facilities owned by major oil companies.
Chevron on July 1 suspended production at Australia's Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility after a leak to perform minor repair work on a low pressure flare system.
(Reporting by James Regan and Jane Chung; Editing by Ed Davies)
(Reporting by James Regan and Jane Chung; Editing by Ed Davies)
Prelude by the numbers
* 3 trillion - Estimated number of cubic feet of liquids-rich gas in Shell’s combined Prelude and Concerto fields.
* $30 Billion - The amount Shell is willing to spend up to in development, in the Australian region over the next five years.
* 50 million liters – The amount of cold water that will be drawn from the ocean every hour, to help cool the natural gas.
* $45 Million – Expected boost to the local economy, including 1,000 jobs.
* 5.3 million tonnes - The amount of liquids Prelude is expected to produce on an annual basis: 3.6 million tonnes of LNG, 1.3 million tonnes of condensate and 0.4 million tonnes of LPG.
* 117% - The amount of Hong Kong’s annual natural gas demand that Shell estimates could be met by the facility’s annual LNG production.
* 1.6 million – the number of engineering man hours invested into the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase of the development.
* 110,000 - The number of natural gas equivalent 110,000 barrels of oil per day that Prelude will be capable of processing.
* 5,000 – The number of workers who will build the LNG facility.
* About 3,000 – The number of engineering drawings done for the project.
* 3,000 km – Total length of electrical and other cabling installed on the facility, the distance from Barcelona to Moscow.
* 600 - The number of engineers worldwide that have worked on the development phase of the Prelude FLNG project to define, design and evaluate plans.
* 220 km – Amount of piping used in the vessel.
* 6,700 hp – The power of each of three thrusters located in the rear of the Prelude FLNG; only two will operate at any one time.
* -162° Celsius (-260°F) – the temperature at which natural gas turns into liquid natural gas (LNG).
* 1/600th – the factor by which a volume of natural gas shrinks when it is turned into LNG
* 200 km (125 miles) - The distance from the Prelude field in the Browse Basin to the nearest land.
* 7 – The number of Prelude development wells.
* 4 – The number of competitors particularly hot on Prelude’s heels with their own FLNG plans, including Petronas, ConocoPhillips, GDF Suez and Exxon- BHP.
* 20-25 years – The length of time Prelude is expected to stay moored over the gas fields before heading to dry dock for updates and repairs.
(Source: Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, July 2014 edition: http://digitalmagazines.marinelink.com/nwm/MaritimeReporter/201407/)