Ichthys Receives Central Processing Facility

The Ichthys LNG project has received the central processing facility in the Australian waters of the Browse Basin, project operator Inpex said May 29.

The central processing facility is the central hub for initial offshore processing of all well fluids delivered from a 130 kilometre network of subsea well infrastructure. Gas from the facility will be sent though an 890 km subsea pipeline to the onshore LNG facility, at Bladin Point, near Darwin for processing.

Most condensate and water from the facility will be transferred to a nearby floating production, storage and offloading facility, the Ichthys Venturer.

“The Ichthys LNG project incorporates some of the world’s largest and most advanced offshore facilities with a continuous operating life of 40 years,” Louis Bon, managing director, Ichthys Project said. 

The facility took 34 days to travel 5,600 km from South Korea, Inpex said. 

The project has seen costs blow-out and start-up dates have been extended multiple times. It was supposed to have started at the end of 2016 and was then postponed to July-September 2017.  The project is expected to produce 8.9mn metric tons (mt) of LNG/yr and 1.6mn mt of LPG/yr, along with more than 100,000 b/d of condensate at peak.

Shardul Sharma