Wally, Its all down to the size of the resource. Prelude and Sunrise are much smaller reservoirs than Browse and are considered "the optimum" size for development through FLNG.
Take a look at Shell's website:
"Prelude and Concerto have around 3 trillion cubic feet of liquids-rich gas. The relatively small size of the gas fields and the remote location make them an ideal candidate for development via Shell's FLNG technology as it would not be economic to develop the gas via a conventional onshore LNG processing plant."
Browse has an estimated 14TCF of gas - extracting all this via FLNG would take more than 100 years! Just as Chevron and Shell have not chosen to develop Gorgon via FLNG, so has Woodside not chosen FLNG to develop Browse - it just doesn't make sense given the size of the development. I agree that FLNG technology has great potential but it has its limits with respect to the rate of gas recovery. It can never compete with a conventional onshore Plant for a reservoir the size of Browse (or Gorgon or Wheatstone etc.).
WPL Price at posting:
$43.34 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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