As Royal Dutch Shell makes final investment decision on the world's first LNG-FPSO, South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries embarked on the construction of the facility in earnest.
The Prelude FLNG is the largest of its kind and is to start producing LNG from 2016.
Samsung back on July 29th 2009 signed a basic contract with Royal Dutch Shell to construct LNG-FPSOs, together with France’s Technip, its consortium partner.
Under the agreement, Samsung will exclusively supply LNG-FPSOs to Shell for the next 15 years.
Industry insiders expect Shell to order up to 10 LNG-FPSOs worth $50 billion in total.
Samsung on March 9th 2010 held a signing ceremony for a contract with Royal Dutch Shell to build the 1st LNG-FPSO. Samsung, France’s Technip and Royal Dutch Shell signed a formal contract to build the LNG-FPSO, which is just the beginning of what would be the world’s largest newbuilding contract ever.
The LNF-FPSO, which has a length of 456 m, a width of 74 m and a height of 100 m, is expected to cost $5 billion.
The unit’s LNG storage capacity comes to 450,000 ㎥ and it will produce 3.6 million tons of natural gas per year at the gas field northwest Australia since 2016.