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World's Largest Ship Floated For the First Time

Posted by samzenpus on from the that's-a-biggun dept.

Zothecula writes "A ship with a hull longer than the Empire State Building is tall has been floated out of dry dock in Geoje, South Korea. Measuring 488 m (1,601 ft) long and 74 m (243 ft) wide, the hull belongs to Shell's Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, which upon completion will be the largest floating facility ever built."

7 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Technically it is not a ship... by Stolpskott · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As it has no motive power of its own (it has to be towed into position), it is not really a ship. But it is still a really cool feat of engineering, designed to ride out the typhoon season off the Australian coast and keep LNG production going for 25 years or so...
    However, Shell are apparently building an even bigger one as well. Maybe they are trying to have a ship that is longer than the Burj Khalifa? ;)

    1. Re:Technically it is not a ship... by jcr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Technically, it's a barge.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    2. Re:Technically it is not a ship... by phrostie · · Score: 5, Funny

      to me it looks like a cross between the titanic and the Hindenburg.

      stand back.

  2. Whatever.... by meglon · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....floats your boat.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  3. Worlds biggest shipyards by antsbull · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw a documentary on them a couple of nights ago, and this shipyard is averaging a super-tanker every 3.5 days if you divide the number of super-tankers they will build this year. Absolutely stunning the technology, skills, planning and productivity that they are managing there. This wouldn't be achievable in a western country thanks to unions and the terrible productivity and project overruns that come with western societies.

    1. Re:Worlds biggest shipyards by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      SK has unions. Also French and Japanese companies seem to be able to build things on time and on budget. Ditto the Germans, who are also unionised.

      It's a cultural thing, nothing to do with unions.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. Re:amazing indeed by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you even know how offshore natural gas is processed?

    Natural gas is pressurized at the offshore platform and pumped all the way to the shore using a long pipeline. Then an onshore LNG processing plant cleans and liquefies it and pump it back out to LNG tankers.

    This thing is designed to replace the long undersea pipeline and the onshore LNG processing plant and its associated dock. One of the reasons why this monstrosity is being built is precisely because it's more environmentally friendly than the alternative. A single offshore facility can replace multiple onshore facilities since the offshore facility is mobile.