First Condensate Ships from Ichthys

The first shipment of condensate from the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project departed for Asia on Monday.

The project's FPSO, Ichthys Venturer, is moored in the Browse Basin, some 220 kilometres (136 miles) off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

Later this year, the Ichthys Project will commence shipment of cargoes from Bladin Point near Darwin in Australia –with LNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports expected to follow in sequence.

At peak, the Ichthys LNG Project is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tons of LNG per annum, up to 1.65 million tonnes of LPG per annum and up to 100,000 barrels of condensate per day.

Gas production started at the end of July, and the project is expected to have a 40-year operational lifetime. The $40 billion project represents the largest discovery of hydrocarbon liquids in Australia in 40 years. 

The produced gas is gathered within the Central Processing Facility, Ichthys Explorer, where it is separated into gases and liquids. The liquids are piped to the nearby Ichthys Venturer while the gases will be transported via the 890-kilometer long Gas Export Pipeline to the onshore gas liquefaction plant at Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Ichthys condensate will be the third condensate introduced to the Asian market this year after that of Australia's Wheatstone and Malaysia's Bergading.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a partnership between Inpex (operator, participating interest: 62.245 percent), Total (participating interest: 30 percent) and the Australian subsidiaries of CPC Corporation, Taiwan (participating interest: 2.625 percent), Tokyo Gas (participating interest: 1.575 percent), Osaka Gas (participating interest: 1.2 percent), Kansai Electric Power (participating interest: 1.2 percent), JERA (participating interest: 0.735 percent) and Toho Gas (participating interest: 0.42 percent).