Built for a purpose
- Builder / location
- Samsung Heavy Industries, Geoje, South Korea
- Original role
- Offshore natural-gas production, liquefaction and storage
- Power and propulsion
- Towed to its operating field; not a self-propelled trading ship
Why it was built
Prelude brings gas processing and liquefaction offshore. Shell describes floating LNG as a way to produce, process and store liquefied natural gas at sea. Its enormous hull supports industrial equipment as well as storage, so it should not be read as an unusually long container ship or cruise liner.
A documented tow from Korea to Australia
TechnipFMC reported the facility’s departure from Geoje on 29 June 2017 after construction by the Technip Samsung Consortium. It was towed toward its operating area off Australia. That journey connects a Korean fabrication centre with offshore gas production rather than a recurring port-to-port cargo service.
Why it appears separately
The site includes Prelude so readers can compare its physical scale, but excludes floating production facilities from the self-propelled ship rankings. Being longer does not erase that distinction. Its documented operating region is also different from a received AIS position: a field location gives industrial context, while a timestamped report is evidence about a particular message.
Historical information reviewed 9 September 2026. Documented journeys are not live vessel positions.