McDermott reaches milestone on Ichthys project

US offshore engineering and construction services player McDermott has officially started the construction of a booster compression module for the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG development in Australia.

According to McDermott’s social media update on 23 November, the construction started at the company’s yard in Batam in Indonesia with the first steel-cutting milestone of the 4,800 metric ton booster compression module that will be added to the Ichthys Explorer central processing platform off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

To remind, the company secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project in November 2021 after completing FEED services for the module.

At the beginning of the year, Heerema Marine Contractors’ Sleipnir vessel was selected by Inpex for the transport of the module from Indonesia to Australia and its installation.

Located about 220 kilometres offshore Western Australia and 820 kilometres southwest of Darwin, the Ichthys field covers an area of around 800 square kilometres in water averaging depths of around 250 metres.

The field is estimated to contain more than 12 trillion cubic feet of gas and 500 million barrels of condensate.

In June this year, Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) approved Inpex’s environmental plan (EP) for the operation of the gas export pipeline (GEP) under the Ichthys LNG project.

Ichthys LNG’s 890-kilometre gas export pipeline delivers gas and some condensate from the Ichthys Explorer central processing facility in the Browse Basin to onshore processing facilities at Bladin Point near Darwin.

Inpex’s subsidiary, Inpex Operations Australia, is working on the Ichthys LNG phase 2 development and it recently awarded a five-year onshore and offshore inspection services, lifting equipment and crane maintenance contract to EnerMech.

Follow Offshore Energy’s Clean Fuel on social media: