Australia: Shell's massive 'Prelude' Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Project, to be located off the northwest coast of Australia, has received environmental approval from the Australian Minister for Environment, Mr Tony Burke.
The approval is welcome news for Shell's 100 percent owned and operated project as it continues to progress through the engineering and design phase of development. The 'Prelude' Project is planned to be the first to deploy Shell's innovative Floating LNG (FLNG) technology, which processes the gas at the site of the gas field rather than piping the gas hundreds of kilometres to shore.
"Receiving environmental approval is an important milestone as we continue to work on the development of the Prelude Project," Ann Pickard, Country Chair, Shell in Australia.
"Deploying our Floating LNG technology reduces the project's cost and environmental footprint, as it removes the need for offshore compression platforms, long pipelines to shore, nearshore works such as dredging and jetty construction, and onshore development such as building roads, laydown areas and accommodation facilities."
By reducing the cost of a development, FLNG can provide a means of developing smaller and more remote offshore gas resources that may otherwise stay in the ground.
The 'Prelude' FLNG Project's environmental impacts were assessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 through a detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that assessed potential impacts and proposed mitigants for the duration of the Project.
The EIS demonstrated the 'Prelude' FLNG Project will have a low impact on the environment including matters of National Environmental Significance, and that compared to developing the gas via a similar onshore facility, it will produce less CO2 and use significantly less materials and land and seabed area.
{WISroYQ symbol='RDSA.L'}
