Inpex Corporation of Japan, the operator of Ichthys LNG project in Australia, revealed that the US$34 billion project is slightly behind schedule.
Reuters reports that the company’s managing executive officer, Masahiro Murayama, told at a press conference that Ichthys LNG project was 64% complete in December, which is shy of the 70% target.
Murayama said that drilling of the production wells was delayed by about two months, but he also revealed the plan to deploy two drilling rigs instead of the planned one in order to catch up to the set target.
The schedule to start production in December 2016 has not been changed.
The company commenced drilling at the Ichthys gas-condensate field, some 200 kilometers off the Wester Australia coast earlier this week. The ENSCO-5006 drilling rig began operations on February 3 and it will be joined later by Transocean’s semi-submersible drilling rig, Jack Bates, Inpex said.
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LNG World News Staff; Image: Inpex