Prelude: A year of working dangerously

Mark Tilly: Journalist: 05 February 2021

“…unions allege a culture of silence that keeps many other incidents unreported thanks to employees’ fear of reprisals.: One complainant filed in April, 2020 said they had been “intimidated and pressured by numerous phone calls and messages from representatives of the Shell company…”

SHELL’s floating LNG facility made headlines last year for all the wrong reasons, after a spate of technical issues forced the multi-billion dollar facility to halt production and cease sending cargoes for almost a year just months after it finally started up. read more

XR activists protest Prelude “death machine”

The $12 billion vessel started up production in July last year, only to be shut in in February as it was plagued with technical problems and has been in lighthouse mode ever since, with frequent clashes between unions, Shell management and contractors like Sodexo about conditions on the vessel. Last week the company posted an impairment post-tax charge of A$924 million…

A GROUP of Extinction Rebellion protestors descended on Shell’s Perth headquarters over the weekend, defacing the entrance and writing chalk on the pavement in protest of Shell’s Prelude FLNG vessel, describing it as a “death machine”.

Police were called to the scene by Shell security, however no arrests or move on notices were made and by Monday morning all evidence of the protest had been removed. read more

Prelude will not resume full production this year, says Shell

Article by Adam Duckett: 21st October 2020

SHELL has said its huge floating LNG production plant – the Prelude FLNG facility – is not expected to resume full production this year, following a troubled start for the pioneering facility.

Production aboard Prelude – which at 488 m long is the largest ship ever built – was halted in February after an electrical trip and it has not resumed. This fault followed, though was not linked to, an order from Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) for Shell to revise its safety management system. read more

Shell’s Prelude FLNG becomes a big headache!

By Bill Campbell

According to a recent article in Forbes “the biggest vessel in the world costing todate between 12 and 17 billion US may have also turned into Shell’s biggest blooper.”

It’s all been Technically very challenging as Shell has attempted to squeeze a complex LNG plant into a relatively small space Forbes say. (this website has covered this as a fundamental concern a number of times) – (1)

Goodman Sachs are also of the opinion that when eventually fully operational Prelude, the worlds most expensive LNG project, will only break even in current market conditions at around 20 dollars per a thousand cubic feet. read more

Shell begins restart activity at Prelude FLNG

Published 04 Sept 2020

Shell has begun restart operations at its 3.6mn t/yr Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) facility offshore Western Australia (WA), which has been off line since February. But it has yet to define the timeline for when production will resume.

“The process for hydrocarbon restart of Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility has commenced,” a Shell spokeswoman said. “Once we have safely started up, we will be in a stronger position to talk about timing of production and cargo.” read more

Shell sends top HR man to Prelude

09 JULY 2020

SHELL Australia’s top human resources man Adam Ralph has been aboard the Prelude floating LNG vessel some time in an attempt to quell ongoing dissatisfaction, and promising cultural change, Energy News has been told. 

Mechanical and safety issues have exacerbated what some have long called a ‘dysfunctional’ work environment and safety concerns saw production stop and half the staff depart in February.

FULL ARTICLE

By John Donovan

Successive Royal Dutch Shell CEO’s cannot say that they were not warned time and again in chilling terms about the Prelude “experiment”, the description used in a Forbes article published today.

The links below are to a series of articles, initially triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished Shell Global Safety Consultant and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects. read more

A series of recent events highlight the challenge Shell has ahead of it with Prelude, and plans for sister vessels which are supposed to follow.

Tim Treadgold Contributor: Asia: June 23, 2020

The world’s biggest ship is on the way to becoming one of the oil industry’s biggest bloopers.

Prelude, a 600,000-ton monster which is five-times the size of the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, is designed to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG), and other petroleum liquids.

Installed atop a remote gasfield 300 miles off the north-west Australian coast, the 535-yard long Prelude is a bold experiment by the oil major, Royal Dutch Shell. read more

Expert comments received in response to the BoilingCold article by Peter Milne “No winners from Shell’s $US17B Prelude floating LNG”

Comment from retired Shell International Global Safety Consultant, Bill Campbell:

It’s all rather depressing, most worrying aspect as implied in the article is the potential gas supply, or lack of it, from the homogeneous and shared reservoir with another operator bleeding off volumes.

The boilingcold.com.au journalist Peter Milne has given the most detailed analysis yet of the Prelude story, elements of both tragedy and farce.

COMMENT FROM “AN OLD SHELL E&P ENGINEERING SEA DOG”

As before I feel very sorry for the Aussies who are under extreme pressure to get this unit up and running.  I do not quite understand the journalist comment of “gas is running out”.  It is a shared reservoir therefore there will be an agreement for the total volumes in place and a regular review taking place to determine the remaining producible volumes and the agreed volume share for each operator.

The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.

The fears voiced by Bill Campbell about a loss of containment (see article link 3) have proven well-founded.

Ask the Australian National Offshore Petroleum and Environmental Management Authority.

ARTICLE: Voser wisely abandons an unstable ship: 28 December 2013

ARTICLE: Royal Dutch Shell Prelude to disaster?: 10 Jan 2014

ARTICLE: Shell Prelude FLNG: loss of containment of hydrocarbons almost inevitable: 21 Feb 2014

ARTICLE: What should frighten stiff Royal Dutch Shell shareholders: 15 March 2014

ARTICLE: Tales of the Unexpected and Royal Dutch Shell Prelude FLNG: 28 March 2014

ARTICLE: Prelude FLNG: A case of all your eggs in the one basket: 10 July 2014

ARTICLE: Prelude FLNG risks are on par with modern offshore oil and gas facilities say Shell – but are they?: 23 Sept 2014 read more

  Peter Milne: 15 May 2020 • 10 min read

ANALYSIS

Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility off the WA coast was to be the first of many that would open up stranded gas reserves around the world thanks to the technical and project management prowess of Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant Shell.It has not turned out that way.When the 488m-long giant arrived in Australia almost three years ago, Shell expected to receive cashflow from the Prelude in 2018.

While the Prelude did export LNG at about half its capacity for the second half of 2019, it is now idle.

Moored far off the Kimberley coast it is plagued with technical problems, dwindling gas reserves and safety processes condemned by the regulator despite Shell and its partners spending about $US19.3 billion ($A30.0 billion) to the end of 2019.

Neither Shell and its partners nor Australia have gained anything near what they expected from the giant experiment. read more

A TALE OF INSPECTORS AND INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING DANGEROUS OCCURRENCES AT THE PRELUDE FLNG FACILITY (AND THE INTERVENTION OF COVID-19).

In a letter dated 16 March 2020 to the Australian National Offshore Petroleum and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), Shell Australia Pty Ltd sought an extension of time for compliance with NOPSEMA General Direction ID 780 in relation to dangerous occurrences at the Prelude FLNG Facility

NOPSEMA agreed in its reply letter dated 20 March to “revise the due date for Direction 2 to 31 May 2020 to provide additional time for Shell Australia Pty Ltd (Shell) to fully comply with the directions, due to extenuating circumstances associated with measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus.“ read more

NEWS REPORT: Offshore Alliance claim Shell’s Prelude FLNG thrusters broken

Extract

UNION Members from the Offshore Alliance have claimed Shell’s massive Prelude FLNG vessel offshore Western Australia suffered maintenance issues to two of its thrusters.

RELATED COMMENTS FROM “AN OLD SHELL E&P ENGINEERING SEA DOG”

I am having difficulties understanding why there are such extensive difficulties with the main power plant reliability?

I understand the steam-driven power plant consisting of several boilers supplying steam turbine driven generators of around 100 megawatts, quite a high figure so at least 4 or 5 boilers and generator sets. These boilers are designed to be dual fired using fuel gas or diesel. If gas supply fails, change over to diesel automatically takes place or should do. We know this because LNG was introduced on board to initially cool the LNG storage tanks down and the boil-off would be used as fuel for the boilers saving expensive diesel and reduce harmful emissions. read more

Angela Macdonald-Smith Senior Resources Writer: Feb 6, 2020 — 12.02pm Speculation that Chinese LNG importers could invoke special contractual clauses to avoid purchasing cargoes as demand plunges on the coronavirus epidemic has further stoked worries about the glut in the market that is causing near-record low spot prices.

State-owned companies including China National Offshore Oil Corporation and possibly Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation are examining whether they could call “force majeure” on contracts, the Financial Times reported.

Analysts at Houston-based Tellurian noted that Chinese importers have started to divert cargoes to India as they seek to avoid taking such action amid soft demand due to the virus outbreak and a mild winter.

Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said that the discussion of force majeure seemed “a hypothetical for now” and noted it was unclear in what circumstances such clauses could be invoked. In any case, it would vary from contract to contract. read more

Prelude shutdown

OPERATION of the world’s largest offshore facility, Shell’s embattled Prelude floating LNG vessel, has descended into chaos with back up power generation failing, cardboard potties issued to replace regular toilet facilities and a fleet of helicopters called in to reduce crew numbers.

05 February 2020

Only last week Shell chief executive Ben van Buerden told analysts the Prelude was evidence of how new assets would improve the gas giant’s cash flow in 2020. read more

Reaction to Shell’s temporary shut down of Prelude

The initial reaction from Bill Campbell

Trying to interpret what is going on is difficult because of lack of detail from journalist report so maybe misinterpreting what happened and my interpretation may be misguided, but… evidence if more is needed that something is wrong on this installation. read more

Commodities (Feb 04, 2020 08:09)

By Jessica Jaganathan and Sonali Paul

Production suspended on Feb. 2 -spokeswoman

* Work under way to restore full operations

* Impact on Asian spot prices to be minimal -traders (Adds details)

By Jessica Jaganathan and Sonali Paul

SINGAPORE/MELBOURNE, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it has temporarily suspended production at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility off northwest Australia following an electrical trip on Feb. 2. read more