Inpex Says Ichthys Start Up Further Delayed

Japan’s Inpex Corporation announced March 26 that Ichthys LNG project’s start-up is expected to be delayed to April-May instead of March-end because of bad weather conditions.

It said that the necessary commissioning of Ichthys LNG project’s first train at the onshore gas liquefaction plant, floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility (Ichthys Venturer) and subsea production systems has been completed in view of readiness for production start-up. The project has already completed drilling the production wells required for the start-up of production, and the 890 km gas export pipeline is also complete, it said.

“Between April and May this year, the project will complete commissioning required for production start up at the central processing facility (Ichthys Explorer) and commence production of gas. Thereafter, the project will begin the production and shipment of condensate, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in sequence,” Inpex said.

Inpex added that while the project’s activity schedule going forward may fluctuate depending on weather conditions at the worksites, preparation activities and other factors, it will continue to aerial view of the onshore gas liquefaction plant.

The Inpex-operated Ichthys project was due to have started up 2016 but its development has overrun and its cost has almost certainly topped the original $34bn price tag.