Inpex Chairman Naoki Kuroda announced the final investment decision (FID) for the Ichthys LNG Project on 13 January 2012 in Darwin, with Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Federal Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism Martin Ferguson in attendance.
“Ichthys production volumes represent more than 10 per cent of Japan’s LNG imports at current levels,” said Mr Kuroda. “Ichthys will provide a long-term stable supply of cleaner energy to Japan, and help Japan diversify its energy sources.”
Inpex and Total also recently announced binding sales and purchase agreements for the entire LNG production project for 15 years from 2017.
The project is a joint venture between Japan’s Inpex – as operator – and France’s Total S.A., and is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes per annum (MMt/a) of LNG and 1.6 MMt/a of LPG over an operational life of more than 40 years, as well as approximately 100,000 barrels per day of condensate at peak.
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Gas from the Ichthys field will be processed at an offshore central processing facility (CPF) to remove water and raw liquids, including a large proportion of the condensate. This condensate will be pumped to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility anchored nearby, from which it will be transferred to tankers for delivery to markets.
The gas will be transported from the CPF through an 889 km, 1,067 mm diameter subsea pipeline to the proposed onshore LNG processing plant, which will be located at Blaydin Point in Darwin, Northern Territory.
Contracts awarded for Ichthys
At the FID announcement, Mr Kuroda said mobilisation for construction of the project would start immediately, with preliminary works at the Blaydin Point site due to commence within weeks. He also confirmed that engineering, procurement and construction of the onshore LNG plant and associated infrastructure would be undertaken by the JKC joint venture, comprising JGC Corporation, KBR and Chiyoda Corporation.
Other confirmed contracts for Ichthys’ major offshore work include:
- CPF – Samsung Heavy Industry
- Subsea production system – GE Oil and Gas
- Subsea flowline construction and installation – McDermott in co-operation with Heerema
- Gas export pipeline – Mitsui-Europipe, Sumitomo, Nippon Steel-Metal One (pipe manufacture); Mitsui-Bredero Shaw (pipe concrete coating); Saipem (pipelay).
At the time of writing, the FPSO construction contractor was yet to be announced.
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