Submission – Response To GD – Appendix A1.1_tor December 2021 Prelude Power Outage Causal Learning

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Shell Australia's Prelude floating LNG facility experienced a significant power outage on 2 December 2021 when smoke was detected in an Uninterrupted Power Supply room, triggering facility muster and emergency shutdown. Complete power loss persisted for an extended period with multiple reinstatement failures, forcing complete downmanning from 293 to 148 personnel by 5 December. The outage rendered critical systems non-functional including air compressors, nitrogen supply, HVAC, potable water, and sanitation, creating an increasingly uninhabitable environment with several personnel requiring medical attention for dehydration. NOPSEMA's terms of reference investigation sought to establish technical causes of the initial power failure and extended instability, including examination of any causal links to a previous 2020 power outage, while assessing whether recent organisational restructuring, manning levels, and workforce competence contributed to the incident.