CPF hull block erected for Ichthys LNG project

April 8, 2014
Inpex Corp. says the first large hull block has been erected for the central processing facility (CPF) for the Ichthys LNG project.

Inpex Corp. says the first large hull block has been erected for the central processing facility (CPF) for the Ichthys LNG project.

The CPF is under construction at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea.

With topside dimensions of 150 m by 110 m, the CPF will be the world’s largest semisubmersible platform, Inpex says. Once complete, it will be towed 6,000 km to the Ichthys field in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia. Production is scheduled to begin by yearend 2016 with peak production expected to reach 8.4 million tonnes/year of LNG, 1.6 million tpy of LPG, and 100,000 b/d of condensate (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2012).

Most condensate will be transferred from the CPF to the nearby floating production, storage, and offloading facility for offshore processing, with the remainder sent to Darwin with the gas via the 889-km gas export pipeline.

In addition to the CPF, work is under way on the FPSO, the subsea structures, flow lines and umbilicals, the gas export pipeline, and the onshore LNG processing plant in Darwin.