Automation maintenace & reliability afloat down under!

Shell Australia has chosen Emerson to provide automation maintenance and reliability services for Shell’s Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility.

Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility. Photo courtesy of Shell.

The size of six aircraft carriers, Prelude is the world’s largest floating production facility. It will process natural gas collected from subsea wells 475 kilometres (almost 300 miles) offshore from Broome, Western Australia.

Since 2010, Emerson has served as Main Automation Contractor on the Prelude project, responsible for process control and monitoring technologies that will help Shell operate Prelude FLNG safely and efficiently. Under the new multi-year support contract, Emerson experts working both onshore and offshore will provide ongoing reliability and maintenance services for an even broader range of equipment.

Emerson and its local business partner, Western Process Controls, will provide equipment monitoring, diagnostic services, spares support, and maintenance for the facility’s control and safety systems, as well as thousands of instruments and valves.

Two expert Emerson engineers on-board Prelude will work with other team members who remotely monitor the facility’s automation from Shell’s operations centre in Perth. The centre’s high-tech Collaborative Work Environment will also enable the Emerson team to consult with Shell specialists as they use a proactive maintenance strategy to detect potential concerns, identify corrective actions, and arrange for delivery of any required equipment to the facility.

Prelude is under construction in Geoje, South Korea, before moving to Australia to begin operations. The facility is expected to remain on station at least 25 years as Shell and its partners develop gas reserves in the Browse Basin’s Prelude and Concerto fields.