Drydocks World will build the world's largest turret, weighing 11,500 tonnes, at its Dubai based shipyard for SBM Offshore.
The turret will be integrated in the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, to be deployed by Shell Development (Australia) at its Prelude gas field off the north-west coast of Australia. The technology will allow Shell to bring new energy sources to market, by accessing offshore gas fields that would otherwise be uneconomic or difficult to develop via a traditional land-based facility.
SBM Offshore has been awarded the contract by Technip France for the engineering, procurement and construction of the FLNG Turret Mooring System. The Turret Mooring System will anchor the FLNG facility at location for the duration of production operations, without the need to disconnect. The design allows the FLNG facility to weathervane passively and resist prevailing weather conditions, including extreme Category 5 cyclone events. The turret will be approximately 30 metres in diameter and 90 metres in height.
The scope of the yard's work is to fabricate and load-out the internal turret in six modules. Design, material and equipment are provided by SBM Offshore. The 'Shell Prelude' FLNG will be built by the TSC Consortium at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. It will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world, measuring 488 metres from bow to stern and weighing around 600,000 tonnes when fully loaded. It will be moored over 200 kilometres from land and will produce gas from offshore subsea fields, treat and liquefy it onboard via a cooling process before storing and exporting the LNG via conventional LNG carriers.