'Pelude!' Now Holds Title As "Largest Ship In The World"

The Prelude! Has now left her South Korean dry dock for the first time. The ship is larger than the Empire State Building and it will be used for Shell's liquified natural gas operations in Western Australia.



The ship will soon be headed to an off-shore natural gas field near Broome, Western Australia where it will serve as Shell's floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility for the next quarter century. Measuring 1,601 feet long, 243 feet wide, and weighing 600,000 tons, this fuel processing ship will also be the largest such floating refining facility on Earth when it's completed in 2017.



The FLING is a one-stop shop for liquid natural gas production. Not only does the ship siphon the raw gas from the bowels of the Earth, it refines the stuff onboard and then distributes it to transport ships which ferry it ashore. For the next 25 years, the Prelude is expected to produce around 3.9 million tons each year.





•Prelude is expected to produce 3.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG, and to remain on location for approximately 25 years.

•The Prelude FLNG hull is longer than four soccer fields laid end to end and it is longer than the Empire State Building is tall.

•The LNG storage tanks have a capacity equivalent to approximately 175 Olympic swimming pools.

•Once complete, the FLNG facility will weigh more than 600,000 tonnes fully loaded, displacing the same amount of water as SIX of the world’s largest aircraft carriers.

•Whilst the Prelude facility is big it is also small – taking up 1/4 the area of an equivalent onshore LNG plant.

•Existing technology that has been adapted for FLNG includes:
- Close coupling between the producing wells and the LNG processing facility – This is the physically short length from one to the other
- Mooring systems – making it bigger for the largest floating facility ever built and dealing with the associated forces.
- The marinisation of processing equipment, so that it will work on a floating facility.
- Water intake risers, as water will be used as part of the cooling process needed to turn the gas into LNG.
- LNG tanks that can handle sloshing – that is the motions of the liquid LNG within the hull if and when there are stormy seas.
- LNG offloading arms which will transfer LNG from the facility to the ships moored alongside – two moving facilities instead of just one.



Shell

They tried to put one here in Long Island sound just after 9//11. It would have made a great target!
Thank god it never happened.

"Largest Ship In The World"

Can we get a ruling on this one?


Shell floats hull for world’s largest floating facility



ETA: Just checked. I think we have a winner... At 488 feet long and whatever wide, she is the new title holder...

LINKY here

and to think just 100 years ago the titanic was 52.000 t and they are talking of ships 2.500.000 tonns being built to sail the world i just hope they thought of storms ??

reply to post by SLAYER69


Yeah, sorry for the confusing headlines there.

reply to post by geobro


Watch the video.

The sheer size of the full-scale facility will help it to withstand very high winds and giant waves. In addition, it will be secured in place by one of the largest mooring systems in the world. A 105-metre high turret, spacious enough to house the Arc de Triomphe, will run through the facility. Four groups of mooring lines will anchor it to the seabed.

The mooring system allows the facility to turn slowly in the wind so as to absorb the impact of strong weather while remaining moored over the gas field. Additionally, two of the three 6,700-hp thrusters at the rear of the Prelude are able to operate at the same time to turn the facility out of the wind and allow LNG carriers to pull safely alongside for loading.

They say it should withstand Category 5 cyclones!

geobro
and to think just 100 years ago the titanic was 52.000 t and they are talking of ships 2.500.000 tonns being built to sail the world i just hope they thought of storms ??

Yah, plus rogue waves and collisions. By operator error. Can't wait for the "biggest ever ship" to be involved in the "biggest ever catastrophe".

reply to post by jtrenthacker


sorry my wifi is rubbish for watching vids but hey its free im piggybacking [ need to add to avatar ]

reply to post by jtrenthacker

The sheer size of the full-scale facility will help it to withstand very high winds and giant waves.

If it floats it can sink.

ok. does it have engines?

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni




It kinda just meanders about out there. What kind of question is that? What? You think they'll tow it to the site and just drop anchor? *Prolly a humongus anchor too*

I'll guess they have many of the new fangled propulsion systems that have those swivel pod type thing-a-ma-bobs and what not spread underneath or some such system.

S&f.

Wish I could do a hitch on that vessel. Ha. Thats not even a vessel, thats a small city.

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni


As above:

"Additionally, two of the three 6,700-hp thrusters at the rear of the Prelude are able to operate at the same time to turn the facility out of the wind and allow LNG carriers to pull safely alongside for loading."

reply to post by SLAYER69


They'll probally do a six point achor. Rough weather I'd imagine using the DP system. DP stands for Dynamic positioning. Uses the gyro and on board computers to talk to satellites. The computer will use the bow and stern thurster to keep it in a pin poin position even in high seas. Technology we have is amazing.

But nothing that big has ever had to ride waves before. With other "rigs" they are open at the base and allow the waves energy to roll thru the structure. This is like a huge sea wall anchored to the floor. Its a new concept.

On "sailing" in the open ocean, the bigger the boat the slower it is to respond to rogue waves during storms. All that newfangled hardware will take even longer to turn the ship into the wave at just the right angle.

The Titanic was "strong like tractor" and "fast like fish", but in the perfect scenario it came down to its slow turning ability that doomed it when encountering the iceberg.

Waves move quicker than bergs.
I also get the "its just too big to fail" thing, too.

SLAYER69
reply to post by FraternitasSaturni

 

It kinda just meanders about out there. What kind of question is that? What? You think they'll tow it to the site and just drop anchor? *Prolly a humongus anchor too*

I'll guess they have many of the new fangled propulsion systems that have those swivel pod type thing-a-ma-bobs and what not spread underneath or some such system.

That was just to hear your answer because of your snarky comment... if it floats and has engines, then it is a "ship" not just a "floating facility", theres no need of "ruling this one" - it is what it is... a floating facility that has self propulsion is... a ship and the largest.

There. Was it so hard... did you have to come in all gun-ho like this is a cowboy saloon?

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni

Isittruee
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

They'll probally do a six point achor. Rough weather I'd imagine using the DP system. DP stands for Dynamic positioning. Uses the gyro and on board computers to talk to satellites. The computer will use the bow and stern thurster to keep it in a pin poin position even in high seas. Technology we have is amazing.

I'd be much more worried about potential sagging and hogging in rough weather. Hope that keel is a monster!

Isittruee
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

They'll probally do a six point achor. Rough weather I'd imagine using the DP system. DP stands for Dynamic positioning. Uses the gyro and on board computers to talk to satellites. The computer will use the bow and stern thurster to keep it in a pin poin position even in high seas. Technology we have is amazing.

Four groups of mooring lines will anchor it to the seabed.

The system allows the facility to turn slowly in the wind – absorbing the impact of strong weather conditions – while remaining moored over the gas field. It can stay safely moored at sea even during the most powerful cyclones.

Bet this facility becomes a pirate magnet. It would fetch a nice ransom.