Royal Dutch Shell PLC spent billions of dollars developing one of the world’s most challenging energy projects, a floating gas terminal five football fields long. The coronavirus pandemic is posing a new problem: How to get workers to safely start it back up. The work “continues to be impacted by measures in place to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spread offshore,” Shell said in an emailed statement. Prelude’s plight highlights how the coronavirus has complicated operations at some of the world’s largest energy projects. It also illustrates how the destruction in energy demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns, and resulting lower prices, is challenging the economics of megaprojects that companies approved when oil and gas prices were higher.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 22, 2020 09:33 UTC