LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's <RDSa.L> Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) ship has left a shipyard in South Korea for its destination offshore northwest Australia, the company said on Thursday.
Shell's $12.6 billion Prelude project is expected to start operating next year, the company said, after long delays since the oil major first decided to go ahead with the project in 2011.
Once the facility arrives in Australia, it will be secured to the seabed by mooring chains before it can be connected to the gas field and start operating, Shell said.
The Prelude FLNG was built by a Technip <FTI.N> Samsung Heavy Industries <010140.KS> consortium in the South Korean shipyard of Geoje.
(Reporting by Karolin Schaps; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
