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Ichthys LNG project reaches new milestone

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LNG Industry,


Inpex has released a statement claiming that Ichthys LNG project has reached a new milestone, as the offshore pre-lay of the 77 km chain and cable mooring system in the Browse Basin has been completed. The Browse Basin is located off of the northern coast of Western Australia.

In water depths of up to 250 m, a total of 49 chains were laid on the seabed and anchored to foundation piles, which had a diameter of 5.5 m and a length of 63 m.

The Central Processing Facility (CPF) and the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel will be secured by the mooring system for a minimum of 40 years of continuous operation. The CPF will deliver natural gas and a certain amount of condensate to onshore processing facilities in the Northern Territory, Australia, via an 890 km subsea gas export pipeline. Most of the condensate will be processed through the FPSO, and then shipped directly to market from the site.

Each chain link weights more than 700 kg. The 28 mooring chains used for the CPF required over 25 000 t of mainly 178 mm dia. chain. The 21 FPSO mooring chains, meanwhile, required over 15 000 t of largely 161 mm dia. chain.

Louis Bon, the Ichthys Project Managing Director, said: “Despite the difficulty of the task, I’m proud to say that it was successfully completed without a single Lost Time Injury or any harm to the environment.

“For example, because the Ichthys Field is located just 120 km from the main hump back whale migratory routes and calving grounds of North West Australia, an early decision was made to avoid pile driving during the whale calving period where associated underwater noise may have created a disturbance.

“The offshore facilities will operate for decades and the mooring system plays a key role in ensuring their integrity.”

As well as the mooring system, over 140 km of rigid flowlines, and over 160 000 t of subsea structures have been installed in the Ichthys field in order to extract both gas and condensate.

Edited from press release by David Rowlands

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquefaction/11052016/ichthys-lng-project-reaches-new-milestone-2431/

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