Japanese operator Inpex is preparing to undertake offshore surveys in preparation of the next phase of development of its Ichthys gas and condensate project off north-west Australia.
Inpex has submitted an environment plan to carry out geotechnical and geophysical surveys in WA-50-L off Western Australia, which is home to the Ichthys field.
In the activity description lodged with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety & Environmental Management Authority Inpex said it was preparing to expand capacity, with further development of the Ichthys field.
In support of the expansion it is proposing to carry out pre-engineering survey activities in WA-50-L comprising of combined geotechnical and geophysical survey scopes.
According to the documents lodged with Nopsema, the survey activities will be carried out between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, with the exact timing dependent upon approvals, vessel availability, operational efficiencies and weather conditions.
The submission of the environment plan follows earlier environment plan submissions by Inpex for the drilling, completion and flowback of between 12 and 15 development wells.
Output from the Ichthys field commenced last year and Inpex is currently in the process of ramping up production to a plateau rate of 8.9 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas, 1.6 million tpa of liquid petroleum gas and 100,000 barrels per day of condensate.
Production currently comes from 18 wells with output being gathered at the field’s central processing facility where initial processing takes place.
The majority of the condensate is transferred to the Ichthys Venturer floating production, storage and offloading vessel and offloaded onto shuttle carriers.
The remainder, along with the gas, is sent via an 890-kilometre subsea pipeline to the onshore LNG export facilities at Bladin Point near Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Inpex operates Ichthys with a 66.245% interest and is partnered by Total of France on 26% and Japanese LNG buyers on 7.755%.
