To Harvest Natural Gas From the Ocean, Shell Is Building the World's Largest Man-Made Floating Object

When will it transform into Mega-Maid?

Hey here in Chicago we still call the Sears Tower the 'Sears Tower'. Big Willis does not exist to us.

"She's gone from suck to blow!" BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What Is Science but A Continual Lesson of The Challenge To Studying The Entire Known Existence of Everything.

-Truth-

that's really good news for australia and asia!

Hopefully BP doesn't build something like this...they would just blow it up!

This is awful news.
We're wasting money and resources on something that's going to release huge amounts of CO2 into the air. This is no better than spending money on a deadly drug addiction.

We're speeding towards a brick wall and instead of stopping we're accelerating. This is suicide right?

i think this is pretty cool but, i think rather then freezing the gas they should distill it to make methanol, which is similar to gasoline. given the size of this thing it could radically lower gas prices considering this can be deployed here in America.

also i was wondering when will open innovation pavilion going to come out sometime in may?!

As long as they have a docking station for my luxury yacht so I can 'fill er up' on the high seas, then I'm all for it.

*they better have a convenience store with slim jims too ....oh yea*

@H20Riz

No, it's not, it's good news. The simple truth is that our renewable energy technologies aren't advanced enough yet to be commercially viable, and tapping into natural gas reserves like this will help keep energy prices down while we work on improving our other technologies. When we finally get something better, companies like Shell will switch to that instead. Until then, we need to use everything we've got, especially when it can be obtained from countries like Australia instead of someplace in the Middle East that's full of terrorists.

now if only we can build a floating city like the one cloaked in the san francisco bay...

Gee Daddy, tell me about the story of the oceans died. Well son, a company called Shell built “Shell’s Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Ship ". It was an engineering wondering. But the motivation for building this ship was all about greed. Initially they used great sums of money to build the ship and cloud the politician’s minds and peoples too in its construction. Eventually it did get built. It was just wonderful to see. But the sad part was, Greed was the overall motivation. They failed to take in account a failsafe system and build a infrastructure to deal with any type of industrial accident. The ship itself had stored tremendous amount of gas and fuel. But when the disaster struck all this gas and oil flowed immediately back into the ocean and air, bigger and faster than anyone could deal with it. Initially as the winds blew, 100 of thousands of people died. And to follow the ocean was overwhelm and it later died. As the oceans died, so did the fish. Millions of people in the world now suffer for lack of food and products. Daddy, why did all this happen? It happens because the 1% of the wealthy of our country controls 40% of the wealth in the country. They overshadowed common good and sense. The 1% Rich people got their way and builds this boat all for GREED. Tho, the 1% still continue to live very well.

@H2oRiz OK, I'll join you in your cave for snacks. Seriously?
I'm getting my coat and the door.

@bubba, So based on that holier than thou diatribe I will assume that you don't have a job, but spend 100% of your time helping the less fortunate, and praying. Keep up the good work! Please reference this disaster you're so passionate about.

My house has a heat pump. I imagine knowing at least 10 different companies that make a similar device, heat pump. The government encourages efficiency and since we are a capitalistic society, I can buy my heat pump anywhere. Now imagine rather it be a heat pump, but a Fuel Cell power plant and heat pump. Electricity is made at my home much more cheaply. The energy does not have to travel across the national grid and is more efficient. The fuel cells are always growing in efficiency, because of the free market of the manufacture of fuel cell products. People at each home can have electricity, heating, cooling and clean water. It indirectly gives a person more freedom too. If one home fuel cell stops working, it does not hurt or destroys the economy of the town or city. The town and city is more free and independent too. If all our country was like this, our countries freedom would grow too. The technology does exist now, but the RICH 1% will always try to shape this technology so you are dependent on them. They will remove your freedom and ensure their own financial status. It is a fact, 1% of the people, control 40% of the wealth in our country.

The disaster I am reference is our lack of independence as individuals and more dependence upon companies to fulfill our own needs. As we as a society grow more dependent, we give up our freedom and must pay more for the things we receive. I would like to see more technology towards individual energy independence. Knowledge is freedom and the ability to live you own life independently is freedom too. If we continue to depend our energy source on great companies, we will always be at their mercy and whim.

I do have a job. @KatieSaucey what happens when you assume.

@bubby It's your choice to bow down and not be an individual. We all know this planet is fucked, the problem is god fairing people like you are keeping us here.

Since you mention God, I just like to say GOD is real and the bible appeals to the soul. The bible is real and all the other religions in the world are real, how God speak into the ear of an individual and tries to comprehend its wisdom. But as much a I am religious, it is not Science. Science deals with the reality of how we humans perceive life around us. Basically science is just drawing the art that God has made. Now why did I mention God? I like to see people get excited on this website and respond. Communication makes for growth. I do not belive we humans are f**ked. I believe hope is inside us, around us and for our future, everyday!

we are doomed. money hungry nations don't care about the environment. bubbagump i agree with you imagine a future where there are 100's if not 1000's of these "ships"? and accidents happened. aquatic life would be doomed.

Here is a nice video of the Ship (animation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h8RP_aZzow

did I not just read today that terrorist were looking to bomb oil tanker and large fuel ships...hmm well doesn't highly volatile gas stored at high pressure and low temperature seem like a target?

what is wrong with you people if we were to stop all advancement just because something may or may not happen we would still be in caves also bubba natural gas can be used for fuel cells and there are fuel cells on the market granted something could go terribly wrong but thats just the inherit risk with everything plus why do you act like companies arent humans shell the company, is a collection of humans to complete a common goal whats so wrong with that, you guys act kookie

@euroson99 thanks for actually contributing, people can learn something from you

Well said Bubbagump... all of it. KatieSaucey does sometimes have some witty funny comments, but she is relatively new to the popsci message boards.

Bo Diddly also has a GREAT point: if we were to stop all advancement just because something may or may not happen we would still be in caves

I agree with both of you. and I think the world...not 50/50 yet, is doing what they can now with current energy sources AND renewable. dont quote me on this, but I am pretty sure SHELL is one of the BIGGEST contributors to renewable energy research in the entire world!!! These oil compains KNOW oil isnt going to last forever. do they just close shop or try to adopt the next big thing. in the case shell they are trying to be at FOREfront of the next big thing, but they are still an oil and gas company.

I do have to say I am a little excited, just becuase the #1 anything is exciting (tallest building, fastest man made object, etc). That and this thing reminds me of waterworld... but that didn't go so smoothly. The first one sank didn't it???? so my excitement ends there I suppose.
But I have a feeling this thing would be VERY hard to sink. people talking about terrorists and such. If that was the case, why not attack any of the 7 building they are comparing the ship to?

I would also like to add I drive a PRELUDE, but its a Honda Vtech SiR not a super boat.

To those who lament tapping into new natural gas (NG) source because it will lead to more CO2 in the atmosphere, I would like to suggest that you do three things to do your part.
1. Don't drive a car: use public transportation or a bicycle.
2. Don't heat or cool house; keep it at ambient temperature, and use more blankets. Also, no fans in hot weather.
3. Don't eat meat, other than a little bit of chicken or fish, and don't keep any pets. Animals produce huge quantities of methane and CO2
4. Stop breating. You emit a large amount of CO2, just like other animals.
For the of you, remember that NG produces less CO2 per BTU than any other carbonacious fuel.

Wow, OK man that makes a lot of sense dude. Wow.

privacy-online.us.tc

@Vquest95 you are right but #3 I have little problem with.
"3. Don't eat meat, other than a little bit of chicken or fish, and don't keep any pets. Animals produce huge quantities of methane and CO2"

I am 99.5% sure that only two mammals on the ENTIRE face of the planet produce methane. Cows and Humans.

Call it the Titanic and launch it December 2012.

Go on, what could possibly go wrong?

@ biggin65409 lmaoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Global warming will not stop because the big companies are not going to stop and fail to make billions of dollars in fossil fuel use. In addition, developing countries will continue burning coal in power plants because it is cheaper and politicians in developing countries prefer to use what is cheap to be able to steal the rest of our tax money. The amount of carbon dioxide and produce methane gas is so large that the solutions we apply on the ground will cause a small effect. The planet will continue to warm, and the domino effect by breaking underwater methane deposits go crazy weather. That and a thousand reasons will require a solar shield at the Lagrange point between earth and sun. But the only way to do it cheaper is to launch a capsule with powder to be launched with magnetic catapult. The magnetic catapult is not a luxury, it is something necessary for human survival. Cancel all other astronomical research projects and give priority to the construction of a catapult magnates in the land and a less potent on the moon europa, to launch ice continuously for terraforming Mars as fast, it seems that we need shelters ahead of schedule.
El problema de esta ley es que nos deja sin salvavidas. Entiandanlo: El calentamiento global no se detendra porque las grandes empresas no van a detenerse y dejar de ganar billones de dólares con el uso de combustibles fósiles. Además, los paises en desarrollo seguiran quemando carbón en plantas de generación eléctrica porque es más barato y los políticos de esos países en desarrollo prefieren usar lo que es barato para poderse robar el resto del dinero de nuestros impuestos. La cantidad de dioxido de carbono y gas metano que producimos es tan grande que las soluciones que apliquemos en la tierra causaran un efecto pequeño. El planeta se seguira calentando, y el efecto domino al desprenderse los depositos submarinos de metano enloquecera el clima. Eso y mil razones más harán necesario un escudo solar en el punto lagrange entre la tierra y el sol. Pero el unico modo de hacerlo barato es con el lanzamiento de cápsulas con polvo que sean lanzadas con catapulta magnética. La catapulta magnética no es un lujo; es algo necesario para la supervivencia humana. Cancelen todos los demas proyectos de investigacion astronómica y denle prioridad a la construcción de una catapulta magnatica en la tierra y otra de menos potente en la luna europa, para lanzar continuamente hielo a el planeta Marte para terraformarlo de rápido, que parece que vamos a necesitar refugios antes de lo previsto.

Vquest95- does that mean that all cars are the same in your view, a chick Driving a Hummvee or Suburban and one driving a tiny and or electric car?
One traveling 40 miles one way to work another 3 miles to work?
Do we pay what the UK & Europe pays for gasoline? No we're special,
we need to drive our mammoth SUVs, vans & pickup trucks.

A house at a modest 63ºƒ in northeastern US is that same as those pumping it at 73?
Cooling to 72 same as they that cool down to icicles?
A Fan same as an AC.
Can you really think there is no middle ground?

⼂

KatieSaucey, I wondered is the Shell Co. a group of atheists and or agnostics?

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Imo, it's high time the selfish Americans & Western world consumers consumed a little less of the earths resources or this new natural resource Shell is going to be sucking out will also be sucked dry, and possibly at a very high cost to both the animals that don't need to blow dry their hair or dry their clothes in a dryer and the ones that must, just have to.

just me nickel
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Personally, getting all defensive because you don't wanna admit that the way we want to live is going to kill us is really useless.

It is likewise useless to preach. All those likely to listen are already in the pews.

If you look at this from an economic perspective, to reach the objective of clean, safe, green energy, we have to stop bitching about oil prices, of which we in North America have least to complain about, and expect them to rise, instead. This is logical. Fossil fuels do not renew themselves, and demand is increasing. I don't have any hard data to back this up, but I wouldn't be surprised if Malthus' observations about population growth increasing exponentially to the linear increase of food prodution play out the same for our consumption of fossil fuels, as their use fuels the unsustainable production of food at rates sufficient to sustain this unsustainably large human population.

We must instead, as a whole, insist that governments cease the oil subsidy that exists in many places, forcing us to pay the real cost of this convenience.

I have a job. I commute an hour to work every day, and to that end I drive the smallest, most fuel efficient vehicle that will suit my need. I would feel the pressure at the pumps, as would everyone else. Making us in the West feel the cost, I think, is a much more direct way to put grassroots impetus behind the sustainable existence movement.

As to God, or GOD, if you'd prefer (though every time I see His name capitalised, it makes me suspicious of a conspiracy involving a three-letter acronym), God is completely infallible, whoever you claim He or She really is, or however you worship; the Catholic Church, and any sect that branched from it, is a human construct dating almost two millenia, to be conservative, and as such is as flawed as the humans that created it. The Bible (or is it BIBLE?) is a combed-through selection of books, called canon, if elementary school education serves, selected from a much wider range of books, called apocryphal by the church. I might personally believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and even the status of Mary as Immaculate, but the bible might at best be called morally accurate, in context of the concerns of the times in which the books were written. I like to see science not as playing with God's fingerpaints, but rather the examination of the mechanics of a master horologist; just because God made everything doesn't mean he worked without logic or laws of physics. But I've digressed.

If we started paying the real cost of our lifestyles, we would realise how bad things really are, how overburdened spaceship Earth really is, and how much trouble we will be in if we don't stop praying for the salvation we can attain ourselves.