The largest vessel the world has ever seen is key to opening far-offshore gas fields

``Shell's ambition is to launch a fleet of future Preludes to pioneer a new chapter in the story of fossil fuels by opening gas fields previously thought to be too tricky or expensive to tackle... Prelude will become the world's first floating LNG plant - or FLNG in the terminology of the industry... Prelude will be parked above the gas field for a projected 25 years and become not merely a rig, harvesting the gas from down below, but also a factory and store where tankers can pull alongside to load up with LNG.''