Monday 23 May 2011

MACHINE OF THE DAY: The largest floating offshore facility in the world

Shell’s 488m long floating liquefied natural gas facility, the first ever of its kind, will allow oil producers to open up new natural gas fields at sea currently considered to costly or difficult to develop.

It’s “a game changer.”

Technology. It’s what keeps us alive.

6 comments:

Mort said...

indeed, it is this type of rig which will aid in the development of the Southern Basin
we need to exploit the resources at hand to progress

Brian Scurfield said...

Yes, the LNG facility is magnificent. I agree that technology keeps us alive but the reason technology is possible is that we have the power to create and apply explanatory knowledge. So what keeps us alive, really, is this power. Explanatory knowledge enables us to effect transformations on the world that otherwise could not happen. Indeed, most physically possible transformations require explanatory knowledge to bring them about.

Readers here may be interested in a new book by David Deutsch which explores the thesis that explanations have a central place in the universe. It is entitled "The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World". Deutsch has been somewhat below the radar of NZ libertarians. Yet, as this book illustrates, he is a striking original thinker in the classical liberal/libertarian/Randian tradition and I think his book may well become a classic of its kind.

Christian Libz said...

When President Palin is sworn into office in 2012, this will be the type of projects that she will concentrate on first in her first few weeks in office, since Obama is not keen on drilling for oil in any of the US territory.

Dave Mann said...

Mort.... you can forget about exploring the Southern Basin with this or any type of rig. The maoris would be objecting to it damaging their fucking sea bed for a start, then the Greenis would protest, then OSH would find something to object about and if all this failed the government would tax the hell out of the project as 'advance carbon' levvies or somee such crap.

Its a no go for lil ol Aotearoa mate....

Daddy said...

Makes me proud that I work for Shell

Andrew B said...

Now Petronas are looking at entering the race to be first to market (first afloat).

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/NaturalGas/8977828