Solstad Farstad wins Ichthys LNG gig

Norway-based Solstad Farstad has won contracts by the Australian unit of Japan’s Inpex to provide offshore supply vessels for the giant Ichthys LNG export project in Australia.

Solstad said Friday it would use its two platform supply vessels, namely the 2006-built Far Swan and the 2014-built Sea Tortuga for the contracts.

The contract for Sea Tortuga will start during April for a period of five months firm, with a further three one-month options.

As per the PSV Far Swan, the contract already started on April 4 for one month firm, followed by five one-month options, according to Solstad.

Both vessels will operate in Australian waters on the Ichthys LNG project.

Solstad did not reveal the value of the deal.

To remind, Inpex said recently the Ichthys project’s central processing facility Ichthys Explorer, located offshore Western Australia, would complete trial operations in April-May, and start gas production.

Thereafter, the project would begin the production and shipment of condensate, LNG and LPG in sequence, it said.

This was another delay for the $37 billion LNG project which was initially targeted to start-up in the third quarter of 2017 and moved to March.

Once the production starts up, the LNG project is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tons of LNG and 1.6 million tons of LPG at peak annually, with up to 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

The project is a joint venture between Inpex, major partner Total, Taiwan’s CPC Corporation and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric Power and Toho Gas.

LNG World News Staff