Pandemic exacerbating "significant teething problems" on world’s largest floating platform; energy major looks to GTT for designs to facilitate safe hydrogen supply chain
Shell said electrical problems that have plagued the world’s largest floating platform Prelude FLNG in Australia over the last two years will keep the LNG production plant out of operation during "most of Q1" 2022.
Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said on a quarterly earnings call for Q4 2021, that pandemic-related troubles had caused delays with getting engineers, who are required to quarantine before boarding the platform, out to the site some 475 km offshore northwest Australia.
"Prelude is going through... quite a few teething troubles," Mr van Beurden said. "But bearing in mind this is a unique asset with quite unique challenges."
"In December [2021], we encountered... an electrical fault in one of the battery systems that are associated with the uninterruptible power supply, and we need to resolve these issues comprehensively and carefully before we restart."
The electrical fault caused a small fire and power outage on board on 2 December 2021, after the facility ran for most of the year without issue. Reportedly, crew were unable to restore full power for several days following the incident.
Australia’s offshore energy regulator National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) ordered Shell not to resume production on 23 December 2021, and Shell must now prove to the regulator that Prelude FLNG can safely recover from a power loss in the future before resuming gas production at the plant.
In its initial investigation, NOPSEMA said, “the operator did not have a sufficient understanding of the risks of the power system on the facility, including failure mechanisms, interdependencies and recovery”.
Commercial operations were also entirely suspended at Prelude FLNG in February 2020 for nearly a year after a series of problems caused NOPSEMA to report three notifications of ‘dangerous occurrences’ at the facility. Its inspectors attributed the problems to deficiencies in aspects of the safety management system that relate to the safe isolation of plant and equipment. LNG production at Prelude FLNG was halted by Shell following an electrical trip issue on 2 February 2020.
Separately, Shell has also announced a new partnership with LNG and cryrogenic gas shipping tank designers GTT in which Shell will provide specialist knowledge to aid GTT in developing a liquid hydrogen (LH2) carrier design and cargo tank design for a mid-sized LH2 carrier.
Shell said its participation in the project is part of a strategy to develop a broader hydrogen energy supply chain "by creating scalable and safe liquefied hydrogen shipping technologies".
“Shell’s strategy is to become a net-zero carbon energy supplier by 2050 or sooner, in line with society, and we see that innovation with hydrogen and hydrogen technologies will play a major role in this ambition. Therefore, safe and efficient bulk transport of liquid hydrogen will be a critical enabler and we believe GTT will bring key expertise to this project that will ultimately help to accelerate and unlock this future energy source," Shell general manager of technology, innovation and digitalisation Carl Henrickson said.
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