Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday that liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes have resumed from its Prelude floating LNG project off Australia, after being offline for nearly a year.
Prelude had suspended full production since early last February following an electrical trip, with Shell facing a number of issues last year in trying to restart production.
"LNG cargoes have resumed from Shell's Prelude FLNG facility," a company spokeswoman told Reuters, adding that the facility's focus remains on delivering sustained performance over the long-term.
She did not elaborate on whether the shipments will be regular or if issues had been fixed.
The cargo was loaded on LNG tanker Symphonic Breeze on Jan. 8 and is bound for Japan, shiptracking data from Refinitiv Eikon showed.
The shipment comes as spot prices for LNG in Asia are at a record high following a surge in demand after a colder than expected winter depleted gas inventories.
The $17 billion Prelude project, centred around the world's biggest floating liquefaction vessel, had been plagued with problems, shipping its first cargo only in 2019, more than two years behind schedule.
The project is jointly owned by Shell, Japan's Inpex Corp, Korea Gas Corp and a unit of Taiwan's CPC Corp.
(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Susan Fenton)
