Floating LNG Collaboration Agreed by Shell, Technip, Consortium

Shell Gas & Power Developments B.V. (Shell) & the Technip Samsung Consortium (TSC) agree on FNLG development & operation.

The companies have signed a heads of agreement to enhance collaboration on the design, engineering, procurement, construction and installation of future innovative FLNG facilities.

The agreement builds on the existing relationship, formed in 2009, to ensure the parties can capitalize on insights gleaned from the design and construction of Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility and expand the technology offering to the energy market. It will drive a culture of joint delivery, continuous improvement and ensure greater value from the collaboration for all parties.

Global primary energy demand could double in the first half of the 21st century, and meeting this growth in demand will require large scale and sustained investment in all forms of energy. Natural gas, which is the cleanest burning fossil fuel, has an important role to play. Shell expects global natural gas demand to increase by 60% from 2010 to 2030, reaching 25% of the global primary energy mix and within that, strong growth in LNG.

Floating LNG enables the development of gas resources ranging from clusters of smaller more remote fields to potentially larger fields via multiple facilities where, for a range of reasons, an onshore development is not viable. This can mean faster, cheaper, more flexible development and deployment strategies for resources that were previously uneconomic, or constrained by technical or other risks, helping to bring more natural gas to the market.

Shell and TSC are already working together on the world’s first FLNG project, Prelude FLNG, which will be moored 200 kilometers off the North West coast of Australia in the Browse Basin. As their experience grows, Shell and TSC perceive that there are many opportunities ahead.