Australia: Phusion Nabs Ichthys LNG Contract

International engineering information management specialist, Phusion (previously Pearson-Harper) has been appointed as Data Management Contractor (DMC) for the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project in a six year contract worth £11.5 million (AUD17.6m).

The deal extends Phusion’s growing portfolio in Australia where the company is already engaged on the giant Chevron Gorgon project.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between INPEX group companies (Operator), Total group companies and other participants.  Gas from the Ichthys field, in the Browse Basin approximately 200km offshore Western Australia, will undergo preliminary processing offshore to remove water and extract condensate.  The condensate will be pumped to the FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) facility anchored nearby, from which it will be transferred to tankers for delivery to markets. The gas will be exported to onshore processing facilities in Darwin via an 889km subsea pipeline. The Ichthys LNG project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of LPG per annum, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

Phusion will assist INPEX by efficiently managing enormous amounts of engineering data associated with the Ichthys LNG Project.  This will result in substantially reduced costs and ensure the timely hand over of comprehensive sets of information to the Ichthys Operations team.

This unique approach to the way data is collected on the project will replace the traditional “handover” stage when, traditionally, huge amounts of data are delivered to the client.

Documents will be delivered as they are produced and design tools delivered monthly.  This makes a big difference to operational staff as they can access data and own the design long before the plant is commissioned.  In turn, this facilitates the commissioning and start-up phases, making a significant contribution to a reduction in handover costs.

INPEX’s decision to use Phusion as its specialised data management contractor (DMC) to assist the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors in the collection and management of information from their suppliers is another key difference.

Mike Moroney, INPEX Information Management Team Leader explains: “Collecting and managing information from suppliers is notoriously difficult to get right on major projects.  For the Ichthys LNG Project, INPEX is targeting a data completion of 95 per cent, compared to an industry norm of around 40 per cent. Our philosophy at INPEX is that sophisticated tools and data methods do not compensate for lack of basic data content. Phusion, as the DMC, is also responsible for populating the project’s spare parts catalogue, a move expected to reduce the spare parts acquisition costs.    

“Overall we are adopting an uncompromising approach with our contractors and suppliers to ensure that we can deliver an integrated information management system with a single point of access.”

The data provided by Phusion has guaranteed integrity and will form the basis of a ‘single source of truth’ in INPEX’s state of the art engineering data warehouse, as thousands of personnel – from both the client and its suppliers – build, commission, operate and manage the new plant.

Data and information from suppliers and EPCs is accessed and uploaded via Phusion Apps.  Each person working in the system has their own unique access to the web-based Phusion portal, the functionality of which can be scaled up or down during the lifecycle of the project depending on client needs.

Phusion personnel will operate as part of the INPEX team collecting, validating and assembling data in line with agreed standards and will liaise with INPEX’s appointed Integrity and Maintenance Contractor and other companies involved in supplying Ichthys, including Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and EPC contractors.

Underpinning this work will be Phusion’s vast library of generic OEM engineering data – widely regarded as the largest such data bank in the world – which the company has developed over the last 20 years.

Phusion will lead the work from its offices in Perth WA and the data management processes will be carried out by teams of experts in Phusion’s Data Factory in Billingham, UK.

Commenting on the deal, Steve Pearson, Executive Chairman of Phusion, said: “We are delighted to be announcing this contract for the Ichthys LNG Project.  It brings the current value of our workload in Australia to more than £20m over the next three years.    

“We are very proud to becoming recognised around the world as a leader in engineering information management.”

Alex Hayward, Managing Director of Phusion continued: “This contract will result in the continued growth of our operations in Billingham in the UK and Perth in Western Australia.    

“The company celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2012; Phusion is a virtually unique business built on solid foundations – blending excellent engineering expertise with innovative web-hosted IT.”

Daren Hinchliffe, the company’s Perth based Support Director said: “Everyone working on the Ichthys LNG Project will benefit from our work as Data Management Contractors.  Working closely with our colleagues at INPEX, we will be creating ‘a single source of truth’.  This validated set of engineering information will be able to be securely accessed by authorised personnel from anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

1 Australian dollar = 1.0273 U.S. dollars

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LNG World News Staff, March 07, 2013; Image: Inpex