Following a journey of nearly 6000 km, Prelude FLNG arrived in Australia where the project team conducted the mooring of “the largest floating facility ever built”.
The team connected the chain number eight to the one of the largest chains in the world, with nearly 25,000 links attached to mooring piles drilled deep into the ocean floor. The mooring lines are connected to the facility’s turret that allows it to rotate or weathervane, the project team explained.
The turret runs through the front of the facility and connects to giant chains that will keep it moored securely over the Prelude gas field.
This represents one of the 16 mooring lines that will secure the Prelude facility to the seabed for the next 25 years at its location 200 kilometers off Australia’s north-west coast.
In the next two decades, Prelude is expected to produce 3.6 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year, as well as liquefied petroleum gas and condensate, a light oil.
Shell is the operator of Prelude FLNG in joint venture with INPEX (17.5%), KOGAS (10%) and OPIC (5%).
Subsea World News Staff; Video: Shell