Shipments of Australian LNG to Japan will increase with the maiden voyage, scheduled for October, of Northwest Snipe, the fourth ship in the North West Shelf Project's planned seven tanker fleet.
The vessel is being built at Chiba shipyard of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding.
Pressure testing and insulation of cargo tanks, inspection of pipelines, and dock tests of the main engine are complete. Testing of alarm and monitoring systems is under way.
Partners in the project's LNG phase, each holding a 16 2/3% interest, are operator Woodside Petroleum Ltd., BHP Petroleum (North West Shelf) plc, BP Developments Australia Ltd., Chevron Asiatic Ltd., Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) plc, and Shell Development (Australia) plc.
Its present fleet consists of the Northwest Swallow, which took on its first LNG cargo from Burrup Peninsula in December 1989, Northwest Sanderling, and Northwest Swift. As of May, the three ships had transported a total 32 cargoes of LNG.
A fifth vessel, Northwest Shearwater, is under construction at the Sakaide yard of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and is scheduled for delivery in September 1991. The sixth and seventh ships, Northwest Sandpiper and Northwest Seaeagle, are planned for launch in first quarter 1993.
The LNG phase is moving an average one tanker/week to eight utilities in Japan following start-up last year of its liquefaction plant.
LNG Trains 1 and 2 are producing 5,000-6,000 tons/day, depending on shipping needs.
PHASE 3
Attention of the North West Shelf Project has now shifted to the $2.7 billion Phase 3, which includes construction of $1.1 billion LNG Train 3.
Train 3 is scheduled for completion in first half 1993. When finished, it will boost capacity of the LNG plant to 6 million tons/year.
Pouring of Train 3's concrete foundations by Baulderstone-Hornibrook plc under a $15 million contract is expected to be finished this month. Workers have begun laying about 280,000 m of electrical and instrument cable under a $4 million contract to an O'Donnell Griffin and M.F. Kent & Co. Ltd. joint venture.
The next major phase of site work will be mechanical erection, due to begin in fourth quarter 1990. The project has awarded five contracts, all to western Australian firms or joint ventures, for this phase.
Contracts were let for $5 million to Kewdale Structural Engineers, to fabricate, paint, and fireproof structural steel work, and for $13 million to a CBI Construction plc and Concrete Constructions WA plc joint venture to build four enclosures, including one designed to be blast resistant.
Other contracts let for Train 3 are $13 million to Transfield Construction plc for prefabrication of piping, $6 million to Park Engineers plc for fabrication, painting and fireproofing about 2,000 tons of structural steel, and $7 million to Rilco Process to build and supply about 5,000 pipe supports.
In April, the North West Shelf Project let four contracts totaling $228 million (Australian) for construction of Goodwyn A production platform. The platform is to be the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion development program in Goodwyn field off western Australia (OGJ, Apr. 23, p. 40).
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.