The Japanese company Inpex has commissioned the central processing facility (CPF) required for the startup of the 8.9 Mt/year Ichthys LNG project in Western Australia. Initially expected to be start-up in the third quarter of 2017, it has been pushed back to March 2018 and is now scheduled to come onstream by September 2018. This is a milestone for the project, whose key onshore and offshore facilities are now ready for production startup.
The US$37bn LNG export facility comprises an onshore LNG plant, a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility (labelled as Ichthys Venturer) and a 890-km long gas export pipeline. The project is led by Inpex (62.245%) and Total (30%), while the remaining stakes are spread between the Australian subsidiaries of CPC Corporation (2.625%), Tokyo Gas (1.575%), Osaka Gas (1.2%), Kansai Electric Power (1.2%), JERA (0.735%) and Toho Gas (0.42%).