Oil and gas supermajor Shell will reduce occupied floor space at its Perth headquarters by 40 per cent over the next year, consolidating its tenancy at Shell House from 10 floors to six.
Oil and gas supermajor Shell will reduce occupied floor space at its Perth headquarters by 40 per cent over the next year, consolidating its tenancy at Shell House from 10 floors to six.
Shell has occupied 10 of the 11 floors at 562 Wellington Street in the Kings Square precinct – known colloquially as Shell House – since the building was opened in 2016.
An anchor tenant, Shell precommitted to sole occupancy ahead of the building’s opening on a 10-year lease as it centralised its WA workforce in the middle of last decade.
That was in preparation for production at the Prelude floating LNG platform off the WA coast, a Shell-operated asset which produced first cargo in 2019.
With its lease set to expire next year, four of the upper levels at Shell House have come available for rent from August 2026.
Each level offers 1,828 square metres of space, on average.
A fifth level is available for lease now.
A Shell spokesperson told Business News the company “taken the opportunity” with its lease expiring to reduce its Perth floorspace.
The company said it would refurbish the building to better suit modern working arrangements.
“The refurbishment reflects the rise in flexible working and changes in workplace design over the past five years,” the spokesperson said.
“The works will provide new collaboration, breakout and enhanced meeting spaces as well as more natural light.
“Refurbishment works will commence in Q3 and are expected to be complete by mid-2026.”
Business News understands space previously allocated across multiple levels of Shell House will be consolidated as part of the refurbishment.
Shell did not comment on whether the move would have implications for headcount.
A project with a price tag of more than $17 billion, Prelude – 475km off the Broome coast – is Shell’s major WA asset and is understood to be the subject of an internal “turnaround 2026” program designed address some of the facility’s operational challenges.
Prelude has been challenged over its life to date by issues with plumbing and power generation, as well as strike action at the back end of 2024.
The project is owned 67.5 per cent by Shell, alongside Inpex (17.5 per cent), Korea Gas Corporation (10 per cent) and CPC of Taiwan (5 per cent).
Regulatory filings published this week by the Australian subsidiary of Kogas revealed the Korean company had recorded a $US51 million profit from its stake in Prelude last year.
That was a marked improvement from reported losses of $US3.4 million in 2023 and $US33 million in 2022.
Another of the project’s joint venture partners – Japan’s Inpex – signed a heads of agreement late last year to shift its offices from 100 St Georges Terrace, or Enex, to five levels of Nine The Esplanade.
