First Ichthys Shipment Arrives in Japan

Japan’s Inpex Corporation received October 31 the first LNG shipment from the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia. The shipment had departed for Japan October 22.

The LNG carrier Pacific Breeze arrived at Inpex’s Naoetsu LNG terminal located in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, at approximately 8:30am local time October 31, Inpex said the same day. The Ichthys LNG Project is operated by Inpex. Other partners in the project are: Total, Taiwan's CPC, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, Jera and Toho Gas.

LNG received at the terminal will be re-gasified and combined with natural gas produced from the Inpex-operated Minami-Nagaoka gas field, and then supplied to customers located along its 1,500 km natural gas trunk pipeline network stretching across the Kanto-Koshinetsu and Hokuriku regions.

“By reaching this milestone, Inpex has taken a significant step toward the development of a global gas value chain business, positioned as one of the company’s business targets outlined in Vision 2040, Inpex’s long-term vision announced in May 2018. Bringing Ichthys LNG to Japan will also contribute significantly to a stable supply of energy to Japan,” the company said.

Ichthys is scheduled to gradually increase its production volume of LNG to approximately 8.9mn metric tons/yr of LNG when it reaches its production plateau. Approximately 70% of the LNG produced by Ichthys LNG is scheduled to be supplied to Japanese customers.