Royal Dutch Shell PLC has started drilling the first of its seven development wells in Prelude natural gas field in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia. It is using the Noble Clyde Boudreaux drilling vessel.
The drilling campaign is expected to last 2 years with the vessel serviced out of Broome on the Kimberley coast.
The Prelude project is expected to be the world’s first floating LNG (FLNG) facility. It will tap into an initial reserve base of 3 tcf of gas and condensate contained in the Prelude and nearby Concerto fields.
Shell laid the keel for the FLNG vessel in May. The hull will be assembled in dry dock before the turret and topsides are fitted at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea.