Milestone for Ichthys LNG project

Inpex has announced that drilling has commenced at the Ichthys gas-condensate field, located approximately 200 km off the coast of Western Australia.

The first development well was spudded on 3 February 2015 by the Ichthys LNG project’s development drilling rig ENSCO-5006, which recently arrived at the gas-condensate field after undergoing major upgrades in Singapore.

Managing Director Ichthys LNG project, Louis Bon, said: “Today we officially mark the beginning of our development drilling programme after years of intensive optimisation studies and detailed planning […] This campaign will target the Brewster reservoir with 20 production wells […] The wells will be drilled into reservoirs about 4000 to 4500 m beneath the seabed.”

The Ichthys LNG project will use directional drilling technology and the wells will be grouped around five drill centres, each designed to accommodate 4 - 6 wells.

The ENSCO-5006 will be joined at a later date by Transocean’s semi-submersible drilling rig, Jack Bates. Both rigs will be supported with aviation and marine services, as well as bulk goods supplies, from Inpex’s dedicated offshore logistics base in Broome, Western Australia.

Inpex expects to start the deepwater pipelay for the LNG project’s 889 km-long gas export pipeline, in the coming weeks.

Adapted from press release by Callum O'Reilly

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquefaction/04022015/milestone-for-ichthys-lng-project-176/