Shell has awarded a six-year contract to engineering company Wood to provide management solutions for the world’s largest floating offshore liquified natural gas (LNG) facility.
The Prelude facility in Western Australia will produce LNG to support the energy transition.
According to Mckinsey analysis, LNG is projected to play a key role in the energy mix “irrespective of the pace of the energy transition,” with demand projected to outstrip supply by the mid-2030s.
“LNG is a key transition fuel as industry balances the need for global energy security with the importance of urgent reduction in carbon emissions. We are delighted to build on our 70-year global relationship with Shell to deliver integrated brownfield engineering solutions for Prelude, the world’s largest floating offshore gas facility,” Ken Gilarmartin, CEO at Wood, said.
“The contract will draw on our global LNG expertise and underlines our position as a market leader for brownfield engineering across Australia.”
Wood, headquarted in Aberdeen, said it would provide brownfield engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) solutions for the LNG facility.
Wood works across energy and materials markets in 60 countries. It has previously partnered with LNG21 to develop the world’s first offshore platform-based liquefied natural gas (PLNG) and storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shell has been a huge investor in LNG and has predicted it will outpace coal as the main energy source of China and other Asian economies.
The Perth-based production site is one of many LNG projects Shell has thrown its weight behind.
Alongside other projects, the company recently began construction on an LNG project on the west coast of Canada, which it expects to be operational “before the middle of the next decade”.