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

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

REUTERS

Shell seismic tests approval complied with rules, S.Africa minister says

January 13, 202210:05 AM GMTLast Updated 37 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Shell’s plan for seismic testing on South Africa’s Wild Coast, which critics say threatens dolphins, seals, whales, penguins and other rare sea life, received all necessary environmental approvals, the country’s energy minister said in a letter to parliament.

In a written reply to questions that was released by parliament late on Wednesday, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said no shortcuts had been made in the process. 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: “receptionservices@parliament.wa.gov.au” <receptionservices@parliament.wa.gov.au>

Cc: John Donovan <john@shell2004.com>

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

The Telegraph

Energy crisis drives Shell’s gas profits ‘significantly higher’

The Guardian

Shell benefits from energy crisis as soaring gas prices lift profits

Mark Sweney: Fri 7 Jan 2022 12.48 GMT

Shell expects a significant boost in profits in its natural gas division, thanks to soaring prices, when it reports its latest results next month, as the oil and gas company said investors would benefit from the continuation “at pace” of its $7bn share buyback scheme this year.

Shell, the world’s largest producer and trader of liquified natural gas, expects trading results at its integrated gas business in the fourth quarter to be “significantly higher” year on year as the rocketing price of gas outweighs a drop in production volume because of unplanned maintenance works. 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

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

RIGZONE

Prelude FLNG Remains Shut In Until Shell Makes It Safe For Work

by Bojan Lepic: Rigzone Staff: Monday, December 27, 2021

Supermajor Shell has been told to keep its massive Prelude FLNG facility shut until it can convince Australian oil and gas safety regulator NOPSEMA that it can keep the facility properly powered and that the safety systems were operational.

The order is a reaction to a shutdown of production from the Prelude FLNG facility earlier this month it lost power, and the crew making several failed attempts to re-establish power aboard. read more

WAtoday

Shell ordered to shut down Prelude floating LNG until it is safe

By Peter Milne: December 24, 2021 — 10.52am

Australia’s offshore safety regulator has ordered Shell to shut down its giant Prelude floating LNG vessel off Western Australia’s North West coast while damning the company’s ability to operate the facility after it descended into chaos in early December following a series of power failures.

The direction from regulator NOPSEMA means Prelude, the biggest floating vessel ever built, will be shut down until Shell can convince them there will be no repeat of the recent dangerous episode. read more

Extract from the Seeking Alpha article by Fluidsdoc dated 7 Dec 2021:

Royal Dutch Shell: The Wind Farm At The End Of The Universe

The Prelude debacle

Shell gets a lot of credit for being an able and experienced project manager, and when it’s their core business, they are. By comparison, Prelude, an FLNG project, has to be considered a financial and technical disaster by any measure, and a lot of that involves mistakes by Shell. An article from last year notes-

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

abc.net.au

Shell’s Prelude LNG vessel shuts operations, staff evacuation underway after electrical fire