Ship Photos of the Day – A Few of the Many Projects Underway at Samsung Heavy Industries

Today’s ship photos come from Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea, the world’s second largest shipbuilder, where a number of interesting projects are underway.

The above photo is latest look of Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility, which at 600,000 tons will be the largest floating structure ever constructed. The facility will be permanently moored in a remote basin off Australia’s north-west coast for 25 years, allowing Shell to produce natural gas at sea, cool it into LNG, and pump it directly onto ships for transport.

The new view of Prelude comes as the largest part of Prelude’s giant turret module was being delivered to Korea from Dubai DryDocks World in the UAE by the heavy lift vessel “Korex SPB No. 1”. At almost 100 meters tall and weighing 4,300 tons, the turret will run through the front of the Prelude FLNG facility, connecting mooring lines to massive anchor piles secured to the seabed. The specially-designed mooring system features a swivel design allowing facility to freely ‘weather vane’, or rotate according to the prevailing wind, waves or current, so the Prelude will never need to be moved off location even in the most extreme weather.

Also under construction at the yard is the ‘Heidrun B’ floating storage unit (FSU) for Statoil and destined for the Heidrum oil field in the Norwegian Sea. The Heidrun B has a storage capacity of 850,000 barrels of oil. The FSU is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2015 and will be connected to a buoy system where it will remain there until at least 2045, pumping oil into shuttle tankers for transport.

And finally here is a look at the 8,000 ton lifting capacity floating crane known as the ‘Samsung 5 Ho’. With arms extending 175 meters, the crane is the largest of its kind in South Korea and enables Samsung to take on such large projects. The crane was purchased from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) in China in 2012. You may recognize this piece of equipment from its involvement in the initial response to the Sewol ferry disaster.

Our source notes that these photos are just peek at a few of the projects that are in advanced stages of construction at the yard, projects which include 12 drillships, 3 FPSOs, 10 or so LNG tankers, a couple of shuttle tankers, and 2+ 9,300 TEU container vessels for CSAV.

All Photos courtesy and copyright Lappino

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