The Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility–Ichthys Venturer–safely sailed away yesterday evening from waters near its construction site in Okpo, South Korea en route to Australia.

This follows the completion of commissioning and preparation work.

The 336-metre long ship-shaped, offshore facility began the 5,600 kilometre voyage that will take approximately one month to complete, from South Korea towards her ultimate destination in the Browse Basin, some 220 kilometres off the north coast of Western Australia.

“The sail away of the massive Ichthys Venturer marks another significant stride forward for the Ichthys LNG Project,” Louis Bon, managing director Ichthys project stated.

“My thanks extend to the teams around the globe who completed around 50 million man-hours of work to safely construct and commission the state-of-the-art FPSO,” Bon stated.
“The Ichthys Venturer has been designed to withstand cyclonic conditions and is one of the largest and most advanced offshore facilities of its kind in the world.”

“Ichthys Venturer has a storage capacity of 1.12 million barrels of condensate and will have a continuous operating life of 40 years, setting new benchmarks for durability,” Bon advised.

The facility will be permanently moored in 250 metre deep waters, where it will undergo hook-up and commissioning, along with the Ichthys Explorer central processing facility (CPF), located 3.5 kilometres away. Installation of subsea infrastructure and equipment in preparation for the CPF and the FPSO was also completed earlier this year.

When operational, the FPSO will process and store condensate delivered from the Ichthys LNG Project’s CPF before periodically offloading this condensate to export carrier vessels.