Respecting our neighbours

This approach helps to manage the social impacts of the activities related to projects undertaken by contractors. 

One such example is at a ship yard in Geoje Island, South Korea, where we engaged contractors Technip Samsung Consortium (TSC) to carry out an extraordinary project on our behalf: building the world’s largest floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility.

With the shipyard located a few kilometres from local communities, there needed to be a plan to limit the noise.

One of the noisiest periods of construction at the yard was three months of steam-blowing – a technique used to clean steel pipes. TSC was able to use best-in-class, dry acoustic silencers in the shipyard to minimise the noise.

Such industrial silencers were previously used successfully at Shell’s Scotford site in Canada.

“We expect our contractors to comply not only with all applicable laws and regulations but also with international standards,” says Prelude’s Executive Director Hilary Mercer. “And with our experience of commissioning projects around the world, we can sometimes share valuable lessons and technical solutions from other projects.”

Engagement with communities 

The dry acoustic silencers were deployed to limit the noise in the surrounding environment – effectively respecting the neighbours. This involved engaging with communities before the steam-blowing process started.

“After talking to people living nearby, we identified a need for continuous noise monitoring to take place during the different steam blowing phases,” says Mercer. “TSC deployed an online system with recording stations strategically located in and around the potentially affected communities. The system provided instant access to noise level readings as well as a mechanism to allow communities to feedback.”

This, alongside meeting people in person, meant the project team was able to track performance and resolve any concerns quickly and transparently. It was community feedback, for example, which led TSC to adjust the steam-blowing schedule to avoid certain times of day. 

“Together TSC and Shell helped to achieve a significant reduction in noise levels, allowing the construction team to progress without interruption,” says Mercer.