Engineering consultancy Wood has secured a long-term contract to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) solutions for Shell’s Prelude floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) unit.
Under the six-year contract signed with Shell, Wood will provide EPCm services for the world’s largest floating offshore gas facility, located some 475 km off the west coast of Australia.
The 488 meters long, Shell-operated Prelude FLNG unit forms part of an offshore development that produces natural gas from the remote namesake field north-northeast of Broome in Browse Basin.
The Prelude FLNG resumed operations late in December 2023, following extensive maintenance operations which started in August the same year.
“LNG is a key transition fuel as industry balances the need for global energy security with the importance of urgent reduction in carbon emissions. We are delighted to build on our 70-year global relationship with Shell to deliver integrated brownfield engineering solutions for Prelude, the world’s largest floating offshore gas facility.
“The contract will draw on our global LNG expertise and underlines our position as a market leader for brownfield engineering across Australia,” said Ken Gilmartin, CEO at Wood.
The first LNG shipment from the project - originally sanctioned in 2011 - was shipped back in June 2019, via the Valencia Knutsen LNG tanker to customers in Asia.
Shell is the operator of the project with 67.5% interest, with other partners being INPEX (17.5%), CPC (5%), and KOGAS (10%).