Update: Inpex buys Ichthys LNG cooldown cargo

(Article updated on April 24 with an emailed response from an Inpex spokesperson)

Japan’s exploration and production giant Inpex has purchased a cooldown cargo for its Ichthys LNG project in Australia. 

Responding to an LNG World News email, an Inpex spokesperson said, “a cargo is being imported in order to cool down the facility using LNG prior to the start-up.”

The cargo is being brought onboard the 182,000-cbm LNG carrier Pacific Breeze, built at Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ (KHI) Sakaide Works.

Citing a company spokesperson, Reuters earlier reported the carrier could also be the first LNG tanker to load at the facility that has seen its start-up delayed once more at the end of March.

The tanker is dedicated to delivering Ichthys liquefied natural gas volumes to Taiwan’s CPC Corporation in the amount of 1.75 million tons per year, under the agreement signed in 2012.

According to the AIS data provided by VesselsValue, the tanker that is currently sailing in the Java Sea is set to arrive in Darwin on April 26. Vessels draft of 11.1 meters indicates it is 91 percent full.

At the end of March, Inpex said the project’s central processing facility Ichthys Explorer, located offshore Western Australia, would complete trial operations in April-May, and start gas production.

After that, the production and shipment of condensate, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will start in sequence.

Once the production starts up, the Ichthys LNG project is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tons of LNG and 1.6 million tons of LPG at peak annually, with up to 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

The project is a joint venture between Inpex, major partner Total, Taiwan’s CPC Corporation and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric Power and Toho Gas.

LNG World News Staff