The Times

Prelude to brighter future for gas runs into a storm

Emily Gosden Energy Editor: Monday 17 Jan 2022

In the open ocean more than 120 miles off the coast of Australia lies Prelude, Shell’s floating liquefied natural gas plant — the biggest floating object ever made. The energy group spent billions of dollars building the vessel, the length of four football pitches, to tap gas beneath the seabed in this remote location, superchill it to a liquid and offload it to tankers to sell worldwide. read more

…no tax or LNG royalties from… Shell’s Prelude projects…

The Guardian

Western Australia’s offshore gasfields pay almost no royalties and stoke carbon emissions, report finds

Australia Institute report finds state received only $430m of its revenue from industry that generated $27bn in exports last year

Peter Hannam: Sun 16 Jan 2022 16.30 GMT

Australia’s giant offshore gasfields are paying almost no royalties, create few jobs and are a large and rising source of greenhouse gases, according to a new report from the Australia Institute. read more

Shell Prelude meltdown: Something went very badly wrong here…

EXPERT COMMENT ABOUT PRELUDE MELTDOWN BY “AN  OLD SHELL E&P ENGINEERING SEA DOG”

With reference to cargo loading operations at Prelude.

It’s been a while since I was involved with these activities but the principles remain the same.  As always there have been many revisions with the objective to improve overall safety for people and property.

Prelude in particular is unique as it exports three differing products with very different properties. 3.6 million tons of LNG, 1.3 million tons condense and 0.4 million tons of LPG. read more

OFFSHORE ENERGY

Shell’s Prelude FLNG risked major failure due to power issues

Australia’s offshore security regulator NOPSEMA said Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility risked the “catastrophic failure” in December due to a power outage.

Prelude is a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, located offshore, north-northeast of Broome, in Western Australia. It is designed to extract, liquefy and store natural gas at sea before it is transferred and shipped to customers. It arrived at its current location back in mid-2017.

At the beginning of December 2021,  Shell had to temporarily suspend production at the facility because of a fire that occurred at the facility the day before. Previously, the FLNG unit went offline from February 2020 to January 2021 due to an electrical trip. read more

Bill Campbell provides further expert comment on the Shell Prelude debacle

By Bill Campbell

I was a bit under the weather yesterday and was a bit fed up really with banging head against the wall, short of time when got an email about NOPSEMA so apologise for what was a scrawl but an attempt to give you both a flavour of what must have been putting guys offshore under pressure.  An inordinate amount of Alarms and musters also. But remember a number of the DO were happening in the period when the plant was down so risk levels may not have been high.  read more

WHAT THE PRELUDE FLNG WHISTLEBLOWER SAID IN DEC 2013: “…god for bid if anything should happen on that vessel in the future I want it known that I raised my concerns officially.”: “It will go down like a lead balloon (or possibly prelude) but if I was an Australian I would refuse to work on the vessel…”

Nine years later, the ill-fated vessel has been shut down because of repeated dangerous occurrences and near catastrophe. Shell will not be able to claim that it was not warned again and again. 

By John Donovan

The headline arises from email correspondence between retired Shell Global HSE Group Auditor Bill Campbell and John Donovan on 10 Jan 2022 relating to the Shell Prelude project. The name of a third party copied in on the correspondence has been redacted. 

But first, some extracts from emails from nearly a decade ago sent to me by a high-level whistleblower in the Prelude FLNG project. In the event of a disaster, I feel sure the authorities will be seeking all such evidence, but by then it would be too late to save lives. 

19 Dec 2013

…and also warned shell on several occasions and this advice has been ignored by all party’s as financial interests come before safety and I have serious enough concerns to want my name removed from all records.

I have documentary evidence of the state of the packages being installed on the vessel and manufactured by totally unqualified personnel, failure of any understanding of the standards and regulations by management.

The list goes on and on but regardless of my own feelings my concerns are for the whole industry if this kind of practice goes on and god for bid if anything should happen on that vessel in the future I want it known that I raised my concerns officially. read more

Self-explanatory emails sent to the Australian authorities in the last 48 hours by Bill Campbell regarding the Prelude FLNG Project

From: Bill Campbell Subject: Prelude FLNG Inquiry into safety by WA Government

Date: 8 January 2022 at 15:45:31 GMT

To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>

Cc: John Donovan <[email protected]>

Reply-To: Bill Campbell 

Dear Sirs/Madam FAO Economics Industry Standing Committee members ref their published Report 5 May 2015 read more

Will Shell have to abandon the Prelude experiment?

From John Donovan: 8 Jan 2022

Dear Mr Andrew Smith

I have copied the email to Shell Legal Director Mr Donny Ching and Shell CEO Mr Ben van Beurden because the subject is a matter of great importance. Namely the lives and well-being of Shell employees and contractors working on the Prelude experiment. read more

This is Money

Oil giant Shell returns $5.5bn to shareholders as profits rise after it cashes in on rising gas prices

• Profits at its gas trading division to be ‘significantly higher’ in the last quarter 
• It will return remaining $5.5bn proceeds from the sale of its US shale business 
• Shell due to report its results on 3 February, days before Ofgem announcement 

By CAMILLA CANOCCHI FOR THISISMONEY.CO.UK

PUBLISHED: 12:02, 7 January 2022 | UPDATED: 13:35, 7 January 2022

Royal Dutch Shell expects profits at its gas trading division to be ‘significantly higher’ in the last quarter of 2021 as it cashes in on rising prices.

The oil giant also said it would go ahead with its plan to return $5.5billion to shareholders through share buybacks after the sale of its US shale business. read more

By John Donovan

Printed below in italics is the content of an email sent earlier today to the Australian National Offshore Petroleum and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) by Bill Campbell, a retired senior Shell HSE expert and long-term Shell shareholder. Bill led Health, Safety and Environmental Audits for Shell worldwide. His credentials to comment on such specialist issues are impeccable.

Bill’s email to NOPSEMA is about an article published days ago by the Brisbane Times under the headline: Shell’s Prelude gas vessel faced ‘catastrophic failure’ from power outage. It was authored by a tenacious energy journalist Peter Milne who has been responsible for a series of revealing articles in recent years about the $24b Prelude vessel. read more

Reuters

Shell Pursues $7 Billion Buyback ‘At Pace’ Despite LNG Troubles

“Shell will later this month move its head office from The Hague to London, scrap its dual share structure and change its name to Shell Plc as part of a plan to simplify its structure and shift its tax residence from the Netherlands.”: “Shell said that its production and liquefaction volumes were impacted in the fourth quarter by unplanned maintenance, mainly in Australia, where its giant Prelude floating LNG vessel was hit by a power outage.” read more

GlobeNewswire

Shell fourth quarter 2021 update note

January 07, 2022 02:00 ET | Source: Shell International B.V.

The following is an update to the fourth quarter 2021 outlook. Impacts presented may vary from the actual results and are subject to finalisation of the fourth quarter 2021 results, published on February 3, 2022. Unless otherwise indicated, all outlook statements exclude identified items.

The remaining $5.5 billion of proceeds from the Permian divestment will be distributed in the form of share buybacks at pace. This decision was taken on December 31, 2021, at the first Board meeting held in the UK following the decision to implement the simplification of the company’s share structure. read more

Brisbane Times

Shell’s Prelude gas vessel faced ‘catastrophic failure’ from power outage

By Peter Milne: January 5, 2022 

Power problems on Shell’s giant Prelude gas vessel in December with almost 300 workers on board risked the “catastrophic failure” of parts of the ship’s structure, according to a report by the offshore safety regulator.

While the crew off the WA coast battled in tropical heat without air conditioning or ventilation to restore power, the steel spine of the vessel was cooling towards a point where it could have lost the strength to support the 80,000 tonnes of gas processing equipment on top of the 488 metre-long vessel. read more

The Many Growing Pains of Shell’s Prelude FLNG Continue

Once heralded as an engineering marvel, it has now become one of the biggest engineering disappointments in recent history. This is the story so far of Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) plant which suffered a new setback last month after it was ordered to halt production following an onboard fire.

According to multiple reports, the fire occurred in the late evening hours of 2 December and caused a complete power outage on the facility where around 200 personnel live and work. Over the next 3 days, the crew made multiple attempts to regain power but were successful only in restoring intermittent power. read more

POLICE INSPECTOR DEMANDS INFORMATION FROM SHELL?

By John Donovan: 31 Dec 2021

I have received emails purportedly sent to me and others by a police inspector from Sama Police Station in Vadodara City, India.

The emails contain serious allegations against Shell.

The emails may be fake or genuine.

The irate police inspector in question, N.H. Brambhatt seems keen to get into contact with Shell. He seems to have reached the conclusion that Shell is frustrating the progress of his enquiries.

Earlier today I sent the following email to Mr Donny Ching, the Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (but not for much longer). read more

gCaptain

Australia Tells Shell to Keep Prelude FLNG Unit Offline Until It’s Proven Safe for Workers

Under the direction of Australia’s offshore energy regulator NOPSEMA, Shell Australia is to “undertake an investigation and create a plan, schedule and commitment to take all necessary corrective actions and demonstrate that the facility can operate safely in the event of power loss” before production can be restarted.

The direction comes after an electrical fire on December 2 led to a complete loss of power to the facility, resulting unreliable and intermittent power for three days. Media reports say the facility was partially evacuated, leaving only a skeleton crew for essential functions. read more