Drydocks World and Maritime World officially announced Shell’s pioneering Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas facility with a steel cutting ceremony of its turret. At more than 90 meters in height and 30 meters in diameter, the turret is the world’s largest and weighs over 11,000 tonnes.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum president of Dubai civil aviation and chairman of Emirates Group welcomed Mr Khamis Juma Buamim chairman of Drydocks World and Maritime World; as well as senior executives of the teams involved in the building of Shell’s Prelude FLNG project.

The delegation comprised of Mr Jean Marc Aubry president Technip France, Mr Jaap de Vries DG of Royal Shell prelude project, Mr David Nichols group commercial and marketing director for the SBM Offshore Group and Mr Janjul Kim of Samsung Heavy Industries Korea amongst other senior executives.

The turret will be built as six modules at the Dubai shipyard and shipped to Samsung Heavy Industry’s yard in Korea where the modules will be integrated into the FLNG facility once built. Once constructed, the FLNG facility will be towed to location where it will be permanently moored in 250 meters deep water, providing weathervaning capabilities and a 4X4 mooring system. The FLNG facility and its mooring system have been designed to withstand extreme weather conditions including a Category 5 cyclone.

Mr de Vries expressed his happiness on the start of the project construction in record time, valuing the active role of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed and Drydocks World. He explained that this project and the technology used is an important development for the LNG industry, because it reduces costs and the environmental impacts of the development of natural gas.

Mr Buamim said that “The shipyard has extensive experience in managing projects of great significance to the world oil and gas industry. It is indeed a matter of great pride to be associated with this historic project, the scope and scale of which is massive and has the capability of defining future developments in the offshore gas industry.”

Source - Arabian Supply Chain.com

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