AUSTRALIA

Prelude hits milestone: Video

SHELL'S Prelude floating LNG project has passed a major milestone, with the two sections of its hull being brought together.

Prelude hits milestone: Video

The 60,000 tonne sections were built in Samsung Heavy Industries' Goeje shipyard.

Just three months ago the keel, for what is to be the world's largest FLNG project, was laid. Now it has come time for the two halves of the hull to be brought together.

Bringing them together was no small feat because the sections were in separate dry docks on different sides of the harbour.

The plan was to float one of the sections across 1.5km of harbour to the other dry dock where the other half was waiting. The section that had been moved would then have to be positioned over hundreds of keel blocks just millimetres away from the other section before the second dry dock was also emptied.

A minor problem with a ballast tank was the only problem, Shell reported, with the rest of the operation seeming to go off without a hitch.

When the two sections were inspected, daylight could be seen through a slight gap between them of about 10mm.

Yes, at the end of the operation two pieces of hull weighing 60,000t each had been brought together over 1.5km to finish up 10mm apart.

It is a milestone for the Prelude FLNG project, but just a small step toward the project being completed.

As one Shell staffer points out in the video, there are three sections to Prelude - the marine part of which the hull segments are but a portion, the processing part and the communications part.

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