Offshore staff
PERTH, Australia – The INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project has reached a major milestone on fabrication of its Central Processing Facility (CPF).
The first dry dock hull block erection was celebrated April 2 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in theSamsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, South Korea, where the CPF is being constructed. The ceremony was attended by INPEX President Director Australia Seiya Ito and Ichthys Project Managing Director Louis Bon.
“The placement of the hull block marks the culmination of huge fabrication efforts since the first steel plates were cut in January last year,” Ito said. “Successful delivery of the CPF is of great importance as it is the center of the project’s offshore development, with all future production being processed through this facility. Today’s event is another major step toward the completion of this world-class facility by late 2015, and a major step in the delivery of the Ichthys LNG Project – one of the world’s most exciting and challenging developments.”
The CPF is a very large floating facility that gathers natural gas and condensate from the Ichthys field's subsea wells. Gas will undergo initial processing on the CPF to extract condensate and water and remove impurities in order to make the gas suitable for transmission.
Most condensate will be transferred from the CPF to the nearby FPSO for offshore processing, with the remainder sent to Darwin, Australia, with the gas via the 889-km (553-mi) gas export pipeline.
On Feb. 19, another milestone was reached for the FPSO when the project celebrated its keel laying.
With topside dimensions of 150 m by 110 m (492 ft by 361 ft), the CPF will be the world’s largest semisubmersible platform. Once complete, it will be towed 6,000 km (3,728 mi) to the Ichthys field in theBrowse basin, offshore Western Australia.
Work is underway for all major Ichthys LNG Project facilities, including the central processing facility, the FPSO, the subsea structures, flow lines and umbilicals, the gas export pipeline, and the onshore LNG processing plant in Darwin.
The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between INPEX group companies (the operator), major partnerTotal and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Chubu Electric Power, and Toho Gas. Detailed engineering, procurement, and construction of the Ichthys LNG Project is ongoing and production is scheduled to start by the end of 2016.
04/05/2014
