Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem was tasked with executing the construction of the 890 km gas export offshore pipeline for the Ichthys LNG project, led by Inpex, in Australia back in 2012.
The project involved laying a 42-inch diameter pipeline, which was noted to be the longest subsea pipeline in the southern hemisphere and the third longest globally. Saipem utilized its vessels, the Semac 1 and Castorone, for the shallow water and deepwater sections of the pipeline, respectively, and successfully completed the pipelaying process in November 2015.
In November of the following year, Inpex announced the successful welding of the offshore section with the onshore section, marking the readiness of the pipeline to transport gas from the offshore Ichthys field to the onshore facilities located at Bladin Point near Darwin for further processing.
With an estimated cost of US$34 billion, the Ichthys project is slated to commence production by the third quarter of 2017, according to the latest official update from Inpex. Once operational, Ichthys is projected to have an annual LNG production capacity of 8.9 million tons per annum.
The Ichthys project is a collaborative effort involving Inpex, major partner Total, Taiwan’s CPC Corporation, and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric Power, and Toho Gas.
