Wood Gets Ichthys Contract

UK contractor Wood Group said February 20 it has been awarded the brownfield engineering services contract for the Inpex-operated Ichthys venture. 

It covers both its offshore facilities, 220km off the coast of Western Australia and  its onshore liquefaction facilities in Darwin, Northern Territory. Effective immediately, the contract is for five years with a two-year extension option and will be executed from Wood’s offices in Perth, Australia and covers delivery of engineering services to support the execution of brownfield works, plus technical support services. It did not disclose the contract value.

It follows the win of a five-year contract in September 2016, to provide subsea engineering services to support Ichthys LNG.

The Ichthys project was due to have started up 2016 but its development has overrun and its cost has almost certainly topped the original US$34bn price tag. Last month the Australian government's chief economist said that it is expected to start up in 1Q2018, and that its second train might begin a few months later.  However partner Total's CEO Patrick Pouyanne said late 2017 that Ichthys's start-up was looking like being in April or May 2018.  He has since implied that the cost could rise to US$40bn, which would make it one of the most expensive LNG projects per mt/yr installed ever.

Inpex recently said it still expects to start Ichthys during this 1Q. At its peak, Ichthys is expected to produce up to 8.9mn metric tons/yr of LNG, up to 1.65mn mt/yr of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and 100,000 barrels per day of condensate.