Shell Australia Pty Ltd (Shell) operates the Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) Project (EPBC 2008/4146) in the Petroleum Permit Area WA-44-L and WA-2-IL. Prelude is located in Commonwealth marine waters in the northern Browse Basin, 200 km offshore northwest Australia and 460 km north-north east of Broome in 237 m from mean sea level (MSL) water depth. Shell is the Titleholder and Operator of Prelude FLNG in joint venture with INPEX, KOGAS and OPIC.

The Prelude FLNG Project comprises the FLNG facility itself and subsea systems including: production wells and manifolds; flowlines; riser base manifolds; flexible risers that transport the gas, condensate and any produced formation water to the FLNG facility; and umbilicals used to control the wells and associated equipment.

The facility includes LNG, LPG and condensate storage as well as facilities for exporting these products to offtake carriers. The Prelude FLNG facility was towed from South Korea where it was constructed and partially commissioned and arrived in field in July 2017. The installation, hook-up and commissioning occurred upon arrival of the FLNG and then the facility reached its ready for start-up (RFSU) milestone by introducing hydrocarbons from the wells on 26 Dec 2018. Prelude FLNG facility has operated in steady state operations since 2022.

The Prelude Operations EP covers Prelude operations and the processing and export of Crux gas, a backfill gas to Prelude. The export of hydrocarbons from the Crux platform is currently planned for 15 years, however this is subject to change based on actual reservoir reserves, efficiencies in the recovery of hydrocarbons and the potential for future developments and subsea tiebacks to extend the operating life. The design life of Prelude is 25 years.

The Prelude FLNG Project was referred by Shell under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). The scope of this EP covers:
• Production and Operations within the designated safety zone, including product offtake tankers or bunkering vessels only when they are attached to Prelude FLNG (considered as petroleum activities)
• Maintenance and turnarounds of the facility and subsea production system
• Significant modifications of the facility
• Well intervention activities using a light well intervention vessel
• Emergency Response events.