Prelude - built to last
Take one gas plant...
...millions of litres of paint...
...some careful interior design...
...and ensure it all lasts for decades.
It's revolutionary...
...pushing the boundaries of innovation.
Destined for fields previously thought too challenging,
Shell is shrinking a liquefied natural gas plant
by 4 times its normal size, and squeezing it onto a floating hull.
At half a kilometre long,
Prelude is the one of the largest structures man has ever sent to sea.
Prelude's gas plant is being built
in a jigsaw of huge pieces, or modules, on the quayside.
It's Huw Jones' job to ensure that its construction runs smoothly.
Looks a little bit like a forest of yellow steel right now,
but we will bring it all together and form 14 modules.
We'll join those 14 modules to themselves and to the hull
to make a facility that is enormous, basically.
A trip to Prelude's main deck already requires an elevator
but once complete, the floating gas plant will be 30 storeys high.
I'm going to put my forest of modules on top
and it will look absolutely fantastic.
Most ocean-going vessels return to dry dock
for maintenance every 5 years.
But Prelude is designed not to return for 25!
To survive, every inch must be utterly protected.
It's Steve Bell's job to make sure
Prelude's 260,000 tonnes of steel are painted to perfection.
Painting is a lot more technical than what people actually think.
Different paints react at different temperatures.
It is a very technical discipline.
Steve and his team are here to inspect the paint job
on a new piece of the gas plant.
Any defect in the paint would in the long term
bring an early breakdown of the coating system,
which would cause an early failure of the steel work.
It has to be perfect.
But on this occasion Steve's team spots some imperfections.
There's a few areas where the final coat was missing,
and a few areas where it was a little bit high.
That's the main purpose of these inspections,
is to find these items and basically work with the shipyard
to rectify the items as quickly as possible.
Across the shipyard,
naval architect Brian Casey faces an entirely different challenge:
To design living quarters that far exceed expectations.
I've designed quite a few accommodations on vessels
and they're all fairly basic, so we thought,
'Well, with Prelude let's try and do something that's good.'
The whole living quarters have got glazed panel walls,
huge open spaces, quiet lounges.
It's like a Hilton hotel.
I wouldn't mind staying there for a few weeks.
Prelude will have around 120 people on board, each with their own cabin.
But at busy times, additional people will have to share,
requiring sofa beds.
We need to have everything the same,
so if someone's coming in, it's a two man cabin
his sleeping arrangements have to be the same.
But making the sofa bed as wide as the main bed
means a design compromise for Brian.
I'd rather have kept the slightly narrower mattress
by 30mm, just over an inch,
but it would cause major problems offshore,
People would say, 'Your bed's wider than mine'
- even if it's only an inch.
The design is very nice.
It is, yes. We've made the best of it.
It's just that I had it perfect initially.
Brian will never live on Prelude,
so, to inspect the very first completed cabin,
he's joined by someone who will...
...production coordinator, Frank Groen.
We're going up to the 59th floor.
The elevator only reaches the main deck.
Perched on the stern,
the living quarters is another nine storeys high.
The finished cabin is right at the summit.
Brian and Frank have to hike.
We've waited a long time for this.
It's probably one of the biggest cabins that I've seen for a facility,
certainly an offshore facility, so, yes, it's pretty impressive.
Additional drawers, which are quite good.
And all these cupboards are soft closing.
We also have hidden curtains.
A bit of privacy is always important, but it's good.
More shelves...more shelf space.
Originally you had tie racks in there, Brian?
That's right, yes, a tie rack. We got rid of that.
Now we go into the bathroom...
...this was moved a few times.
Do you remember the discussion on that, Brian?
Yeah, it was a major item, the clothesline.
That got moved around about three or four different times.
It's attention to detail that makes life a lot better offshore.
Frank's impressed so far, but will the sofa bed be up to scratch?
It's quite a good setup.
As you can see, it looks very, very close, or very similar
to the fixed bed when it's down,
and that was the main design criteria we had.
And they're both the same widths.
Do you want to try this one? You'll be sleeping on it, Frank.
And the full length's there too, which is good
because quite often you can't get that extra length.
It's very good. These are great.
Obviously, Australians are usually taller as well,
- That was one of the key points of - - I didn't have that problem!
Although there's a lot yet to achieve,
the Prelude team is well on its way to building
a world-class, technically innovative facility
that will stand the test of time.
If you come back here in three months' time
there's going to be a huge change here...
...and taller.
Fantastic, I've got goose pimples talking about it!