Shell’s Prelude facility in Western Australia gets clearance

The Australian federal government has greenlighted a floating LNG facility off Western Australia's north-west coast. The facility will be built by global energy giant Shell.

Last year the Anglo-Dutch oil giant had announced that it was in the process of preparing a blueprint for a liquefied natural gas plant that would float off the coast of Australia. The LNG plant, the biggest vessel to be built, would be the first of its kind in the world. (See: Shell to build $5 billion floating LNG plant) The facility to be moored on the seabed would extract gas from the Prelude gas field.

The floating LNG technology to be used in the project is best suited project for development of gas deposits too small or too far from the coast to be commercially exploited through onshore plants.

According to a Shell spokeswoman Prelude is expected to produce about 3.6 million metric tons of LNG annually and 1.3 million metric tons of condensate, a type of light oil. She added that the company would need approvals for production licenses prior to a development decision being made.

According to environment minister Tony Burke, he has approved the Prelude facility in the Browse Basin but with stringent conditions.

Burke said yesterday that, "While there are significant economic benefits to these projects, which must be a consideration, in my decision, my focus has been on protecting environmental matters."