INPEX announced that the necessary commissioning of the Ichthys LNG project's first train at the onshore gas liquefaction plant, Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility (Ichthys Venturer) and subsea production systems has been completed in view of readiness for production startup.
The project has already completed drilling the production wells required for the startup of production, and the approximately 890-Km feed-gas pipeline is also complete, the Japanese operator said, adding that “between April and May this year, the project will complete commissioning required for production startup at the Central Processing Facility (Ichthys Explorer) and commence production of gas.”
Thereafter, the Ichthys LNG project will begin the production and shipment of condensate, LNG and LPG in sequence. However, INPEX has reminded that “the project's activity schedule going forward may fluctuate depending on weather conditions at the worksites, preparation activities and other factors.”
Last month, Ichthys LNG project's partner, Total had revealed that it is likely to see further cost blowouts and possible delays in production as costs for the project, which has already been hit with multiple delays and a recent deadly industrial accident, could reach $40 billion, up from $37 billion.
Ichthys has been plagued by delays and cost overruns and was originally slated to cost $34 billion, before Inpex in 2015 said costs were closer to $37 billion while the original target for production at Ichthys was 2016, according to GLNGI's Global LNG Database.

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