The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker to berth at Shell's Prelude floating LNG site off Western Australia since it was shut down after a fire has begun loading, Refinitiv data shows.

The Methane Becki Anne vessel berthed at the Prelude plant on Jan. 17, Refinitiv ship-tracking data showed.

Gas production at the 3.6 million tonne Prelude facility had been suspended in mid-December after a small fire. At the time, Shell gave no timeline for when the plant would resume output but said the fire was much less serious than one that shut Prelude a year ago.

A Shell spokeswoman on Jan. 17 said there were no updates.

Prelude's floating LNG vessel, the world's largest, previously suffered a four-month shutdown because of a power failure in December 2021. Production was disrupted again in July last year by a workers strike, with output resuming in September.