Fire halts operations at huge floating LNG facility

SHELL has temporarily halted production at its major floating LNG facility Prelude, after an electrical fire on 2 December. All workers are safe and accounted for.  

At about 23:00 local time on 2 December, systems aboard the ship detected smoke in an electrical utility area, triggering automatic fire detection and management. The fire was extinguished, preventing further spread.

Production at the facility – which operates off the coast of Australia – is suspended until the main power is restored. Shell did not say when resumption is expected.

This news represents the latest setback in a series for the 488 m long ship, which has production capacity of 3.6m t/y of LNG, 1.3m t/y of condensate, and 0.4m t/y of LPG. This includes a previous electrical issue in February 2020, which halted production until January 2021. Operations started in December 2018.