Time-lapse: Ichthys offshore platform ‘coming to life’

Japan’s Inpex has shared a time-lapse video of its giant central processing platform ‘coming to life’.

The platform, being built in South Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries, will be deployed at Inpex’s Ichthys offshore gas field in Western Australian waters.

The central processing platform was named the ‘Ichthys Explorer’ at a ceremony in the shipyard on Friday.

Apart from naming the CPF, Inpex also named named the Ichthy Project’s floating production, storage and offloading facility “Ichthys Venturer” at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard, also on Friday.

The Central Processing Platform (CPF) and the FPSO will be important parts for the development of the Ichthys gas field located offshore Western Australia.

The facilities will be permanently moored for 40 years of operation in the Ichthys field, in the Timor Sea about 220 kilometers off the Western Australian coast.

Gas will undergo initial processing on the CPF to extract condensate and water, and remove impurities in order to make the gas suitable for transmission. Most condensate will be transferred from the CPF to the nearby FPSO for offshore processing, with the remainder sent to Darwin with the gas via the Project’s 890 kilometer gas export pipeline.

More condensate will be extracted from the gas at the onshore plant in Darwin. Once in the field, the FPSO and CPF will be linked by an electric cable, allowing power supply to flow from each facility as a contingency measure as required.