New Cargo Ship Is 488 Meters Long

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New Cargo Ship Is 488 Meters Long

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @04:44AM from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC reports on the construction of Prelude, a new ship that will be the world's longest vessel. It is 488 meters long and 74 meters wide, built with 260,000 tons of steel and displacing five times as much water as an aircraft carrier. Its purpose is to carry an entire natural gas processing plant as it sits over a series of wells 100 miles off the coast of Australia. Until now, it hasn't been practical to move gas that comes out of the wells with ships. The gas occupies too much volume, so it is generally piped to a facility on shore where it is processed and then shipped off to energy-hungry markets. But the Prelude can purify and chill the gas, turning it into a liquid and reducing its volume by a factor of 600. It will offload this liquid to smaller (but still enormous) carrier ships for transport.

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Displacing five times as much water... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 04:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

It'd be hard for it not to given that it weighs five times as much.
1. Re:Displacing five times as much water... by ColdWetDog · 2014-12-17 04:56 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Oh stop with the physics already. What do you think this is, a technology site?
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:Displacing five times as much water... by bobbied · 2014-12-17 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It'd be hard for it not to given that it weighs five times as much.
  Archimedes? Is that you?
  
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  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Prelude to what? by hooiberg · 2014-12-17 04:49 · Score: 5, Funny

If this is the mere Prelude, something truly gargantuan must appear shortly.
Not a cargo ship by eastern · 2014-12-17 04:49 · Score: 5, Informative

The headline is wrong. This is not at all a cargo ship. It's more like an free-floating platform on which a gas refinery has been built. It will stay in place during its entire lifetime.
It should not even be compared to ships.
1. Re:Not a cargo ship by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 05:01 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  It should not even be compared to ships.
  If it can move under it's own power it's a ship.
2. Re:Not a cargo ship by ArcadeMan · 2014-12-17 05:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Well, is it going to go there on its own power or will it have to be towed? If it can go there by itself, then it's a ship.
  
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3. Re:Not a cargo ship by ColdWetDog · 2014-12-17 05:16 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Well,technically it's a ship, I think. A quick search did not answer the question as to whether it is self powered. If it is, it's a ship (certainly not a 'cargo' ship). If it isn't it is a barge according to maritime right-of-way rules.
  It's friggin large whatever you want to call it.
  Funny, Shell is going to spent $20 BILLION or so on this thing for a 25 year lifespan (and perhaps another 25 with a whole lot of refurb). That's a lot of solar panels, insulation, wind mills and hell, even a nuclear plant or two.....
  
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  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
4. Re:Not a cargo ship by iggymanz · 2014-12-17 05:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "I am captain of the world largest ship, change course at once and give us right of way"
  "I am a lighthouse bulb changer, your call"
5. Re:Not a cargo ship by bobbied · 2014-12-17 05:31 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  That's a lot of solar panels, insulation, wind mills and hell, even a nuclear plant or two.....
  But, if they are thinking $20 billion is worth it, you can be it is going to process a LOT more than that number in gas. My guess is they are looking at around $10 Billion/year return from their investment which gives them a 5 year payoff with operational costs. This beast will likely produce $250 Billion in revenue with about half that being profit.
  No "green energy" installation of the same price would come close to this kind of profit.
  
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  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
6. Re:Not a cargo ship by geekoid · 2014-12-17 06:01 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You're numbers aren't even close:
  3.6 million tonnes a year, projected.
  http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...
  1 million metric tons LNG = 52 trillion Btus
  http://www.extension.iastate.e...
  3.6 * 52 trillion
  that's about 175 trillion BTUs.
  Current price ~10 dollars per million BTU.
  http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/his...
  1.75 Billion a year, BEFORE cost of operation.
  Once again, when not using made up numbers, Green energies are the same.
  
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  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
7. Re:Not a cargo ship by DerekLyons · 2014-12-17 07:15 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Once again, when not using made up numbers, Green energies are the same.
  Which is a very odd claim - since you produce no numbers whatsoever for "green" energy.
  And you forget that natural gas isn't just a source of BTU's - it's also a major feedstock for a variety of industrial processes. (A significant portion of "oil derived" plastics are actually derived from natural gas.)
That's pretty cool by Cpt_Kirks · 2014-12-17 04:52 · Score: 4, Funny

162 C below zero
Re:An enormous natural disaster waiting to happen by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 05:01 · Score: 5, Funny

Gob forbid all that natural gas leak into the water? Who will clean up a natural gas slick?
Something new for my oldest to get interested in by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · 2014-12-17 05:19 · Score: 3, Interesting

Well now my oldest will be interested in a different ship other than the Maersk Triple Es. In his mind the bigger the better, so things like the Bagger 288, Big Muskie, The Captian, and the Cat 797 are the best things ever created.

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Time to offend someone
A big boat! by spaceyhackerlady · 2014-12-17 05:25 · Score: 3, Interesting

I live in a port city and see lots of ships, but I'm not sure this baby could even enter the harbour here.
It's far bigger than what the Panama Canal can handle (maximum 290 meters long), as well as the Saint Lawrence Seaway (225 meters). The Panama Canal was designed for the largest ships of the day, RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic.
...laura
Built by Samsung by Deflatamouse · 2014-12-17 05:54 · Score: 3, Funny

There's quite a bit of rounded edges on that ship. Watch out, Apple might sue.