LNG giant Shell is expecting higher liquefaction volumes in the first quarter of this year due to higher uptime at the Prelude FLNG facility and its QGC business.
Shell said in an update on Thursday that it expects first-quarter liquefaction volumes of 7 to 7.4 million tonnes, up from 6.8 million tonnes in the previous quarter.
The firm said in its full-year and fourth-quarter report in February that liquefaction volumes would be about 6.6 to 7.2 million tonnes in the first quarter.
Shell’s liquefaction volumes dropped by 4 percent year-on-year to 29.68 million tonnes in 2022 due to the “derecognition of Sakhalin-related volumes and longer-than-expected maintenance at Prelude and operational issues at QGC in Australia.”
Shell’s QQC operates the 8.5 mtpa QCLNG plant on Curtis Island.
In January this year, Shell shipped the first LNG cargo from its 3.6 mtpa Prelude floating LNG producer offshore Western Australia following a fire in December 2022.
Besides higher liquefaction volumes, Shell expects trading and optimization results for its integrated business to be at “a similar level” compared to the fourth quarter.
Integrated gas production in the first quarter would range between 930,000 and 970,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a rise from 917,000 kboe/d in the previous quarter.
Also, Shell expects a pretax depreciation for integrated gas of between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion in the first quarter.
Shell plans to publish its quarterly results on May 4, 2023.
