Shell Royal Dutch Shell's floating LNG plant will sit on a vessel planned to be 1,574 feet long and 246 feet wide.

Royal Dutch Shell plans to deploy a vessel “much larger than an aircraft carrier” off the coast of northwestern Australia to house the world's first floating liquefied natural gas plant.

Shell will use the technique at the Prelude and Concerto gas discoveries, Malcolm Brinded, the company's executive director for international upstream business, said during a conference call Thursday. The untested method is a “game-changer,” allowing discoveries that are small and too far from the coast to justify onshore plants to be profitable, he said.

The Hague-based Shell's plans to employ what it called the biggest ship in the world are backed by the largest exploration budget of any oil company, estimated at $31  billion this year and $28 billion in 2010, Brinded said. The project is among more than a dozen that may propel Australia to second among global suppliers of the fuel from fifth now.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6659288.html