The vessel is 488 m.
The biggest ship on the planet and the largest floating structure ever created by man, is a Prelude FLING. In length it is equal to the famous wailing Wall in Israel. On Board could accommodate five full-size soccer fields or 175 Olympic swimming pools.
However, its purpose is different: the world’s first floating factory for the extraction and liquefaction of natural gas.
The ship belongs to the Dutch-British oil company Shell, was built in South Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries, and will work off the coast of Australia, getting gas from the ocean floor, the first drilling is scheduled for 2017. In the strict sense it’s not really a ship: Prelude can’t swim on their own, and to the workplace, it will need to tow (the information disputed, the Internet found another). But this monster is unsinkable and Neubauer: it is designed specifically for service in the zone of cyclones in the open ocean and is able to withstand even the fifth hurricane, the highest category. The planned service life of 25 years.
Ship designed for transporting natural gas, processing it into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and finally the transfer directly to transport ships. Displacement of the ship will be more than 600 000 tonnes (namely 661 400 ton), it is planned that every year the vessel will carry up to 3.6 million tonnes (3.9 million tons) of LNG per year. The total capacity of the Prelude is over 430 million liters, equivalent to about 175 Olympic swimming pools.
Prelude FLNG will be located around 475 km northeast of Broome, Western Australia, for approximately 25 years. The season in this region lasts from late November to April, but the new giant ship will be able to work all year round, in all weather conditions.
The mooring system allows the platform to slowly turn in the wind so as to reduce the impact of a powerful natural disaster.
A giant platform will go to the place of extraction of natural gas by 2017. However, in a short time, the glory of the Prelude FLNG may fade, as representatives of the company said that currently engaged in the development of an even larger ship. “We are developing a huge platform,” said Bruce Stinson, General Manager of the Shell company last week “it will be another floating giant “, he said.
