Subsea work required for giant LNG project

This project will add to the existing network of subsea facilities and install a booster compression module on the central floating production platform.

Gas and condensate liquids at Ichthys are processed on the world’s largest semi-submersible production platform, Ichthys Explorer, 220 km offshore Western Australia.

Liquids are further processed on the nearby Ichthys Venturer floating production, storage and offloading facility and exported via tankers.

Gas from Ichthys Explorer is piped along the 890-km export pipeline, the longest in the southern hemisphere, to an LNG production and export facility in Darwin, Northern Territories.

McDermott will help Inpex prolong production life of the Ichthys field and LNG plant through engineering a compression module to boost gas pressure through the export pipeline. This will require procurement, construction and installation on Ichthys Explorer over the next three to five years, at a similar timeframe for additional subsea construction work on the producing field.

McDermott is lined up to undertake umbilicals, risers and flowlines engineering and installation as part of an expansion of the existing Ichthys LNG facilities.

Vessels will be required to install lines and bundled cables, for survey, diving and support work. Engineering will be completed at McDermott’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Impex estimates Ichthys contains more than 12Trn m³ of gas and 500M barrels of condensate. Production from the field commenced in 2018. Ichthys LNG is expected to produce 8.9M tonnes of LNG and 1.65M tonnes of LPG per year, along with more than 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak levels.

This FEED contract award comes after McDermott Middle East director for marine operations Douglas Korth spoke about opportunities for subsea vessels at Riviera Maritime Media’s Offshore Support Journal, Middle East virtual conference, on 9 November.

Over the next five years, McDermott projects the majority of its work will be driven by diving and cable laying activities in the region. Mr Korth said several projects have been delayed or deferred because of the coronavirus pandemic, with work expected to peak by 2023. The company is seeing more demand for higher crane capacity and DP2 systems for these projects.

Offshore projects and opportunities for subsea installation vessels will be discussed in depth during Riviera’s Offshore Support Journal, Asia virtual conference on 2-3 December 2020 - use this link to access more details and to register for this event