Engineers say the construction of Shell’s $12 billion Prelude project is on track, marking a number of milestones as the massive floating gas facility takes form.

The Prelude FLNG project will be the first structure of its kind, capable of producing 3.6 million tonnes of LNG per year, as well as condensate and liquefied petroleum gas.

The incredible floating facility is essentially an entire gas market in a single vessel.

It will be able to drill, extract and process gas for international export without leaving its home off WA’s Kimberley coast.

Shell says 2015 has been a busy year so far, with the company finishing season one of the Prelude field drilling campaign and testing of three new wells too.

Shell says the wells’ downhole pressure, temperature and flow rate were exactly as expected, and the data acquisition program worked as planned as well.

Shell has now started its season two campaign, which includes the drilling, completion and unloading of four remaining wells.

Meanwhile, at the South Korean dock where Prelude is being constructed, five topside modules have been lifted into place in the first quarter of this year.

The massive modules house two large refrigerant compressors, the main cryogenic heat exchanger and the three cryogenic pre-coolers.

The commissioning and start-up (CSU) team is now loop checking the 23,000 instruments on the facility, making sure each one is correctly installed and configured.

The company is “very pleased with our progress on Prelude however we continue to put safety and quality as lead drivers particularly as we head further into commissioning and integration activities”, according to Prelude Project Director Didrik Reymert.