Hogan Lovells Advises JKC Australia LNG on Ichthys Project

May 22, 2012

Hogan Lovells said it has been advising JKC Australia LNG (a joint venture between JGC Corporation, KBR and Chiyoda) in relation to the US$34 billion Ichthys LNG Project in Australia.

JKC signed a contract with INPEX earlier this year for the engineering, procurement and construction of the onshore LNG facilities, to be built near Darwin in Australia.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between INPEX (76%, the operator) and TOTAL (24%). Gas from the Ichthys Field, in the Browse Basin approximately 200 kilometres offshore of Western Australia, will undergo preliminary processing offshore to remove water and extract condensate.

The gas will then 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.

Since the main EPC contract was signed in February this year, the Hogan Lovells team has continued to advise JKC in connection with its ongoing subcontract negotiations. Eight major EPC subcontracts have been awarded so far, including:

Combined cycle power plant – CH2M Hill/UGL and GE
Cryogenic tanks – Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Laing O’Rourke
Site development civil works – Macmahon and John Holland
Accommodation village – Laing O’Rourke
Product jetty – BAM Clough
Module offloading facility – BAM Clough
Temporary telecommunications – Kentz
Temporary site facilities – Leighton Construction

The Hogan Lovells team includes lawyers from London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.

It has been led by London-based Infrastructure and project finance partner Scott Tindall with support from Craig Brook, a senior associate in the firm’s Singapore office. The core team also included project, engineering and construction partner Tim Hill (Hong Kong), Of Counsel Julien Reidy (Singapore), senior associates Chris Healy (London) and Rachel Guan (Hong Kong) and associate Julien Berenholtz (Tokyo).

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LNG World News Staff, May 22, 2012; Image: INPEX