Shell has yet to give a firm target for when it will start liquefied natural gas exports from the Prelude floating LNG development off Western Australia, but said it is closing in on the shipment of a first condensate cargo, write Rob Watts and Nassir Shirkhani.

The Anglo-Dutch supermajor said before the end of last year that it had opened the first wells at the world's largest floating liquefaction facility, heralding the initial phase of gas and condensate production.

Once that phase is completed, the facilities will be stabilised for LNG production.

However, Shell integrated gas director Maarten Wetselaar declined to give a timeframe during a results briefing in London last week.

“The most important indicator on Prelude is the quality and speed on the ramp-up, not so much the fixation on a particular start-up date," Wetselaar insisted.

"But, so far, progress is pleasing and we will turn it on when it is ready to be turned on.”

Wetselaar said the upstream element of the project has been “working flawlessly" since the end of December.

“We are basically going through a very methodical process of turning on the midstream, section by section, and that is progressing every day,” Wetselaar told the briefing.

“We will continue to focus on process safety and quality as we bring Prelude on in the weeks and months ahead."

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden added that four of Prelude’s seven wells are now producing.

Once operational, Prelude will produce 3.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

Meanwhile, increasing Egyptian gas production is allowing Shell to make more use of its largely idle LNG facilities at the Mediterranean port of Idku.

Wetselaar told the same results briefing that the company expects to export more cargoes this year, though he declined to give a precise number.

"Over the last year, we have already seen an uptick in gas availability. So we export more cargoes and we expect to see an increase in 2019," he said.

The Shell-operated Idku LNG facilities have a capacity of 7.2 million tpa, but were mostly idled after the 2011 Egyptian revolution as the nation suffered gas shortages.

Shell also confirmed it is bidding to take part in Qatar’s LNG expansion project that is set to see the Persian Gulf LNG giant's production capacity grow from 77 million tpa now to 110 million tpa in 2024.

Shell is already a partner in the Qatargas 4 project .