On Geoje Island, off the coast of South Korea, as many as 5,000 workers have been building the largest vessel ever constructed. With a deck the size of seven football fields and containing three times as much steel as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Prelude will spend years anchored above a natural gas field off Australia, pumping fuel from under the seabed and turning it into a liquid that can be shipped to Asian customers.
Led by Royal Dutch Shell (RDS/A), the project could transform the global gas industry. Until now, liquefied natural gas projects, which chill the fuel until it turns into a liquid that can be transported on tankers, have relied on giant onshore plants. Putting an LNG facility on top of a ship will open up dozens of fields once considered too remote or too small to be viable. “It’s a very crucial technology,” says Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser, who rates approving the project as the single most important decision he’s made while running the Anglo-Dutch company. “This will be a solution that works for many, many fields.”