Ichthys Venturer, the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility, arrived in Australian waters on August 14.
The 336-meter-long, 59-meter-wide, ship-shaped, weather-vaning facility will be permanently moored in the Browse Basin, about 220 kilometers off the Western Australian coast, INPEX said.
On July 18, the facility started its voyage from waters near the construction site in Okpo, South Korea.
“The safe completion of the 5,600-kilometre, 26-day tow of the Ichthys Venturer from South Korea to Australian waters is another significant stride forward for the Ichthys LNG Project,” Louis Bon, Managing Director Ichthys Project , commented.
“The FPSO has been designed to hold 1.12 million barrels of condensate and operate for 40 years in a cyclonic environment, setting new benchmarks for durability,” Bon further said.
Ichthys Venturer, which is able to accommodate up to 200 people, joins the Ichthys LNG Project’s Central Processing Facility (CPF) – Ichthys Explorer – described as the world’s largest semi-submersible platform that was safely moored in the Ichthys Field recently.
Once Ichthys Venturer is moored in the 250-meter deep waters of the Ichthys Field, hook-up and commissioning activities will commence, according to INPEX.
The FPSO will process, stabilize and store the condensate delivered from Ichthys Explorer before periodically offloading it to tankers for export to market.
The Ichthys LNG Project is a project led by INPEX alongside major partner TOTAL, and the Australian subsidiaries of CPC Corporation Taiwan, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, JERA and Toho Gas. The project is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tons of LNG and 1.65 million tons of LPG per annum, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.