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Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG)
Cooling natural gas to -162° Celsius turns it into liquid and shrinks its volume by 600 times. It can then be shipped to far-off countries where the energy is needed. Groundbreaking technology will allow this process to take place at sea, without the need to lay pipelines and build processing plants on land.
Natural gas provides a cleaner alternative for power generation. But not all gas fields are located near to the towns and cities that need the energy. Chilling the gas converts it into a liquid, reducing its volume so it can be shipped to markets around the world.
Traditionally, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants are built on land. With five decades of experience in the LNG industry, Shell has been developing new technology since the mid-nineties that will allow the gas to be cooled at sea.
Moving the production and processing out to sea where the gas is found is a major innovation that brings huge new energy resources within reach. It also helps to avoid the potential environmental impact of constructing and operating a plant on land, including laying pipelines to shore and building other infrastructure.
We are now moving ahead with the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas plant, Prelude FLNG, off Australia’s north-west coast.
There are also plans to use our FLNG technology and expertise elsewhere. After an extensive and rigorous process to evaluate different possible concepts, the Woodside-led Sunrise Joint Venture has chosen Shell FLNG technology as the preferred option to develop the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea.
Recently INPEX announced that Shell also has been selected as a partner in INPEX’s Abadi gas field project off the coast of Indonesia, where the first phase of development will include the construction of an FLNG facility.
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