Groundbreaking Engineering at AOG Conference

It is one of the world’s modern engineering marvels. With more than 600 engineers involved in its design options, it is set to be the largest man-made vessel to ever float on the ocean.

And it is set to be a major topic of discussion at this year’s annual Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference (AOG) event in Perth in March.

The Shell-operated Prelude Floating LNG (FLNG) facility, set to move to location off the far north-west coast of Australia later this year, will be featured in a new FLNG stream on day two of the 2015 AOG Conference at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre (PCEC) on Thursday March 12.

Presentations from Shell representatives Mark Schubert and Claus Otto will highlight the incredible engineering breakthrough that the game-changing FLNG technology is bringing to the oil and gas sector in its bid to develop fields previously considered uncommercial because of their remoteness.

Just to give you an idea how mind boggling incredible the Prelude FLNG facility will be, try and picture this in your head. The facility will be 488m long and 74m wide, weighing more than 600,000 tonnes fully ballasted – roughly six times as much as the largest aircraft carrier ever built. Approximately 260,000 tonnes of that total weight will consist of steel – around five times more than was used to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

And it is not only FLNG that promises to make AOG 2015 a must attend event for anyone with an engineering interest. The Conference’s significant Subsea coverage will feature multiple topics of interest that should prove attractive to a broad spectrum of engineering specialists.

In particular the session “Creating, Extending and Mending Subsea Systems” to be held on Wednesday March 11, has some key discussions on new technology developments including Enhancing Tie-Back to Existing Facility presented by Astrid Rusas Kristoffersen of Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies AS, the Benefits of Variable Speed Drives for Subsea Production and WellHead Hydraulic Power Units by Greg Haig of Pressure Dynamics, Engineered Solutions Offshore – A Practical Perspective by Steve Prentice of Orontide, and Subsea Wellhead System Design for Fatigue Performance presented by Justin Rodriguez of FMC Technologies.

The session on Risers on the same day also includes some clever engineering ideas such as the Water Intake Risers for Prelude FLNG a subject to be presented by Mike Efthymiou of The University of Western Australia, Innovative Riser Configurations for Shallow Water by Claus Dencker Christensen of NOV Flexibles, FPSO Riser Solutions for Harsh Environments by Hanh Ha of 2H Offshore Engineering, Flexible Pipe Technology for Deepwater and Gas Riser Systems by Anthony Mahe of GE Oil & Gas and Design of Riser Turret Mooring Systems to be presented by Fabrizio Pistani of Woodgroup MCS-Kenny.

And then there is the opportunity to network with all your engineering peers at the fabulous range of networking events run throughout the AOG programme.

No matter what your engineering interest or skill level, AOG 2015 is definitely the place to be from March 11 to 13, 2015.

FLNG – Thursday 12 March
Single Day Conference Pass $550 inc GST
Find out more and buy passes here

Subsea – Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 March
Single Day Conference Pass $550 incl GST or Two Day Conference Pass $950 inc GST
Find out more and buy passes here

Image credit: FLNG Shell Prelude. Image provided courtesy of Photographic Services, Shell International Ltd.