Inpex hires Floatel unit for Ichthys work

Offshore accommodation services provider Floatel International has lined up another contract for one of its units following an award by Inpex for operations on the Ichthys field in Australia.

Floatel International said on Thursday it has been awarded a contract from Inpex Operations Australia for Floatel Triumph to provide accommodation and related services at the Ichthys field.

The charter will start in mid-2022 and will last for up to approximately two months.

It is anticipated the work will involve some 40-55 Australian offshore positions in locally provided marine crew and catering services during the execution of the work.

Floatel has recently been awarded several new contracts, including its first in the offshore wind market.

First, the company was awarded a new contract by Shell in the Philippines. The three-month charter for the Floatel Triumph will start on site on 1 September 2021.

Then, Floatel was awarded a contract for the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a project, the company’s first in the offshore wind sector. Under the contract, Floatel International will provide an accommodation vessel to support construction activities on Ørsted’s offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

After that, the company secured a contract in the Asia Pacific from an undisclosed client for Floatel Triumph to provide accommodation and related services. The charter will start in the second half of 2022 and will last three to four months.

In early June, Floatel was also awarded a contract by Chevron for accommodation services at the Anchor field development in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Inpex-operated Ichthys field is located about 220 kilometres offshore Western Australia and 820 kilometres southwest of Darwin. The field covers an area of around 800 square kilometres in water averaging depths of around 250 metres. It is estimated to contain more than 12 trillion cubic feet of gas and 500 million barrels of condensate.

The field is expected to produce 8.9 million tonnes of LNG and 1.65 million tonnes of LPG per annum, along with more than 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

Floatel Triumph is a semi-submersible accommodation and construction support vessel designed for worldwide operation with emphasis on some of the harshest environmental conditions in the world, such as the Northern North Sea. It was built by KeppelFELS Shipyard and delivered in September 2016.