Inpex starts development drilling at Ichthys field

Feb. 4, 2015
Inpex Corp. has started development drilling in Ichthys gas-condensate field in the Browse basin, about 200 km offshore Western Australia.

Inpex Corp. has started development drilling in Ichthys gas-condensate field in the Browse basin, about 200 km offshore Western Australia.

The development campaign will target the Brewster reservoir with 20 production wells more than 4,000 m beneath the seabed.

The well was spudded Feb. 3 by the Ensco PLC’s ENSCO 5006 semisubmersible drilling rig, which recently arrived at the field after undergoing major upgrades in Singapore.

Inpex, operator of the Ichthys LNG project, said gas from Ichthys field will be initially processed offshore and then sent to onshore LNG facilities in Darwin via an 889-km pipeline (OGJ Online, July 8, 2014). Condensate will be stored on a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel and then loaded onto tankers for export.

Detailed engineering, procurement, and construction of the Ichthys LNG project continues with production scheduled to begin by yearend 2016. At peak, the project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes/year of LNG and 1.6 million tpy of LPG, along with 100,000 b/d of condensate.