Ichthys project

The Ichthys Project, being developed in the Northern Terrirtory, will be receiving natural gas from the Ichthys Field offshore gas wells located in the Browse Basin off the Western Australian coast, 820 kilometres south west of Darwin.

Ichthys Project Could Supply gas to Darwin for the Next 40 Years

It has been estimated that the Itchthys Field natural gas reserve holds†around 12.8 trillion cubic feet of gas and 527 million barrels of condensate which will give the field a life of around 40 years. The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture operation involving Japanese based INPEC, TOTAL and the Australian subsidiaries of Toho Gas, Chubu Electric Power, Osaka Gas and Tokyo Gas. The project operator is INPEC Browse Pty Ltd.

Ichthys Project Onshore Facilities Being Built in Darwin Harbour

The Ichthys Project onshore facilities are being developed at the Middle Arm Peninsula at Blaydin Point in Darwin Harbour as well as offshore Darwin. The first shipment of LNG ( liquefied natural gas) is scheduled to be produced at the facility in either 2015 or 2016. More than 3,000 people are required during the projects four years of construction, when completed the operation will require 700 permanent employees.

Ichthys Project is One of the World's Largest Gas Projects

When complete the Ichthys LNG operation will be one of the largest in the world with a 40 year life span. It will consist of a semi-submersible central processing facility (CPF), a two train onshore LNG facility at Middle Arm Peninsular in Darwin, 885 kilometres of undersea gas pipeline and a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel.

The gas extracted from the Ichthys offshore gas field will be initially processed at an offshore central processing facility (CPF). It will be at the CPF where water and raw liquids is removed along with a large amount of condensate. The condensate is to be pumped to the nearby floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility. It is taken from the FPSO by tankers that deliver it to the company's customers.

The natural gas is taken from the CPF by means of the 885 kilometres gas pipeline laid on the seabed,.This pipeline takes the gas from the CPF to the onshore LNG processing plant at Blaydin Point in Darwin Harbour. The facility in Darwin cools the gas to below 161 degrees Celsius to turn it into a liquid, LNG. The Ichthys project will begin with production of 8.4 million tonnes of LNG a year and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) annually, as well as around 100,000 barrels of condensate a day. Condensate is a a substance also known as 'white oil,' although it is basically a transparent product, that can be used to make both fuel and plastics.

Ichthys Project Accommodation Village Capable of Housing 3,500 Workers

A workers accommodation village was opened at Howard Springs, a suburb of Darwin, in September 2013. It is capable of accommodating up to 3,500 fly-in-fly-out project workers. The village will also be used to house permanent workers once the construction phase is complete. The accommodation village, that is built on 67 hectares of land, includes a 50 seat cinema, tennis courts, cricket nets, basketball courts, music room, pool, gym, outdoor beach vollyball court, internet cafe shop etc.