Huge floating LNG plant cleared to restart production

Shell

SHELL has been cleared to restart production at is major floating LNG facility Prelude.

In December 2021, the company halted production at the facility after a fire broke out in an electrical utility area. It was caught quickly, and further spread was prevented. Shell said at the time that production would be halted until main power could be restored.

In February, The Australian reported that Shell attributed the ongoing closure, in part, to difficulty giving specialists access to the platform due to the mandatory 14-day quarantine requirements for Covid-19 in Western Australia.

Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority has now cleared the facility to restart production, The Australian reported.

A Shell spokesperson said: “We will continue to work methodically through the stages in the process to prepare for hydrocarbon restart with safety and stability foremost in mind.”

The company has not announced a restart date.

News of the planned restart comes amid boycotts of Russian oil and gas supplies, due to the ongoing Ukraine invasion.

Prelude is a 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. The electrical fire in December was the latest in a series of setbacks it had experienced, including an electrical issue in February 2020, which halted production until January 2021. The ship first started operations in December 2018.