UK’s Xodus wins training manual supply contract for Ichthy’s LNG project in Australia

Australia’s Ichthys LNG project, offshore Western Australia, which is being executed by Japan’s Inpex is in the final phase and is making steady progress. The big energy project awarded a contract to UK’s Xodus Group to deliver a suite of more than 40 offshore operating manuals for the project. The training and reference materials for the offshore operations crew will be supplied by Xodus Group’s Perth office.

Pricey contract

"Our dedicated team of engineers brings extensive hands-on experience from UK North Sea and Australian oil and gas facilities and is focused on ensuring that the Ichthys manuals are of the highest quality and will help to assist the offshore crew to carry out their work safely," said Neil Coutts, Process & Facilities manager of Xodus Group, reports Ring Zone. "We are proud to be supporting Ichthys as it transitions to the operational phase."

Ichthys will be starting production by September 2017. At peak capacity, the project is expected to produce 8.9 million metric tons of LNG and 1.6 million metric tons of LPG per annum besides approximately 100,000 b/d of condensate.

Both gas and condensate from the Ichthys field will be processed on the offshore facilities before transporting to the onshore LNG plant near Darwin. The condensate will be shipped to global markets from the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility near the Ichthys field in the Browse basin, reports Offshore magazine.

Australia is predicted to overtake Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter after adding new capacities. Inpex’s Ichthys project started with $34-billion budget. However, it will undergo a rise by 10 per cent in outlay. This follows the crash of price in LNG shipped to Asia after prices tumbled 60 per cent from a peak in 2014 after global demand dipped. A slew of factors, such as weakening Asian economies, cheap coal and return of nuclear power in Japan, scuppered the demand for LNG as a power-plant fuel, according to consulting firm IHS Inc.

Capacity up

In a significant revision of capacity, Inpex corporation also raised the production capacity of Ichthys LNG project by 6 percent.

“The Ichthys LNG project is a world-class project with an expected operational life of at least 40 years. All the LNG initially planned to be produced from the project has been sold,” Inpex Corporation President and CEO Toshiaki Kitamura said. The Japanese company hopes that the hiked annual LNG production capacity will spurt to 8.9 mtpa from the earlier target of 8.4 mtpa, reports World Oil .

For feedback/comments, contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au or let us know what you think below.