The Ichthys Project consists of the development of the Ichthys gas and condensate field, located offshore northwest Australia, and the construction of an 889 km, 1,066 mm gas transmission pipeline, together with the onshore LNG plant at Blaydin Point.
For the construction of the offshore gas export pipeline, Bredero Shaw has received a contract worth approximately $374 million to provide pipeline coatings and related products and services.
The contract involves coating pipe that will be protected with Asphalt Enamel coating, SureFlo™ internal coating and HeviCote® concrete weight coating. Bredero Shaw has also received a contract for anode procurement and installation as well as custom coating.
Samsung Heavy Industries has been awarded a contract to construct the offshore processing facility, which is worth approximately $2.54 billion. Work on the 100,000 t facility is expected to commence in 2013.
Other notable contracts for the pipeline industry the project include GE Oil & Gas, who has received contracts totalling more than $1 billion to supply a wide range of equipment and services.
GE will provide rotating equipment, including gas turbines and compressors, for the onshore Ichthys LNG plant and associated floating production storage and offloading and a central processing facility (CPF) located in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia.
In addition, GE will supply subsea production systems for the offshore portion of the project as well as subsea connectors for the gas export pipeline.
NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson said that the approval by the Federal Government of the Ichthys Project was a major stepping stone for the NT in becoming the oil and gas hub of Australia.
“The INPEX Icththys project will deliver an unprecedented boost to the Territory’s economy, benefiting business, investors and workers.”
The Ichthys Project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes per annum (MMt/a) of LNG and 1.6 MMt/a of LPG, along with approximately 100,000 bbl/d of condensate at peak. Joint venture partners in the project are INPEX with a 76 per cent interest and Total E&P Australia with a 24 per cent interest.
Sun keeps rising on NT LNG development
In other NT LNG news, the Greater Sunrise Gas Fields Development involves the development of the Greater Sunrise and Troubadour gas and condensate fields, which are located in the Timor Sea, approximately 450 km northwest of Darwin and 150 km south of Timor-Leste.
The Sunrise joint venture partners have selected their preferred concept, namely a floating LNG development. The development will produce approximately 4 MMt/a of LNG for export, plus the associated condensate. The floating facility will be able to store 146,000 t of LNG and will export LNG via an LNG carrier and condensate via a shuttle tanker.
In the second half of 2011, Woodside CEO Peter Coleman visited Dili on two occasions and held meetings with senior Timor-Leste Government representatives and other key stakeholders. The Sunrise Joint Venture also continued to engage with Australian and Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) regulators on the way forward for Greater Sunrise.
During this dialogue, all stakeholders confirmed their desire to see the Greater Sunrise fields developed, and the benefits from the development realised by the Governments and the people of Australia and Timor-Leste.
Contingent resources for the project stand at 1,717 Bcf of dry gas and 75.6 MMbbl of condensate.
The partners are planning to commence front-end engineering and design in 2012 and construction in 2013, ahead of first LNG production in 2017.
Joint venturers in the project include Woodside as operator with a 33.34 per cent participating interest, ConocoPhillips with a 30 per cent interest, Shell with a 26.56 per cent interest and Osaka Gas with a 10 per cent interest.
With the growth of these world-class LNG developments, an increase in pipeline networks throughout the Territory seems an inevitable and exciting prospect.
Increasing NT offshore infrastructure
The Chief Minister also welcomed the signing of a $104 million contract with ShoreASCO to build and operate a world-class marine supply base at East Arm in Darwin.
Mr Henderson said that the construction would begin in the coming months on the base which would cement Darwin’s position as a major oil and gas hub.
“We are fast becoming the oil and gas capital of Australia and are about to undergo a significant economic boom,” Mr Henderson said.
“Already major players have come on board to take advantage of our world-class marine supply base with ConocoPhillips to use if for their existing operations, INPEX confirming it will be using the base during its multi-billion gas development, and Shell confirming its will use it to service its floating LNG plant in the Browse basin,” Mr Henderson said.
Mr Henderson said that ShoreASCO will operate the base for up to 20 years and has contracted local company Macmahon to build the base.
Construction will start in April 2012 and is expected to be complete by the end of 2013.
Pipeline network in the NT
Dominating the Northern Territory pipeline network is the 1,629 km Amadeus Gas Pipeline and laterals, of which APA Group is the owner and operator. The pipeline, which has various diameters of 356 mm, 324 mm, 273 mm and 114 mm, was commissioned in 1986, and was acquired by APA Group on 17 June 2011.
The Amadeus Gas Pipeline transports gas from the offshore Blacktip gas field to Darwin, Alice Springs and regional centres, principally to fuel power generation in the Northern Territory. Gas is delivered into the Amadeus Gas Pipeline via the Bonaparte Gas Pipeline (BGP) at Ban Ban Springs, flowing north to Darwin and south to Alice Springs and regional centres.
The BGP, also operated by APA Group, is a 287 km pipeline running from the onshore gas plant at Wadeye to the existing Amadeus Basin to Darwin Pipeline. It is currently owned by Energy Infrastructure Investments.
The BGP consists of a buried 300 mm diameter Class 900, high-tensile steel pipe, located in a 30 m wide corridor. The pipeline has an initial design life of 50 years. Initially, the pipeline will be capable of delivering 30 PJ/a of gas and will ensure that the energy requirements of the NT continue to be met. The BGP was completed in 2009.
The 502 km 660 mm Bayu-Undan to Darwin Gas Pipeline, operated by ConocoPhillips, is also a major feature of the Territory’s pipeline scene. The transportation of lean gas via the subsea pipeline
is intended for processing in a new single train LNG plant. The 3.5 MMt/a LNG plant at Wickham point, Darwin, uses ConocoPhillips’ optimised cascade LNG process technology with associated storage and marine load-out facilities.
The pipeline, which was constructed in 2004-05, has been receiving operations and maintenance servicing by Clough AMEC.
In October 2011, Clough AMEC was awarded a two-year contract extension by ConocoPhillips to provide the services to the Bayu-Undan facilities located in the Timor Sea. The contract extension has an estimated value of $100 million. The joint venture has provided operations and maintenance services to the Bayu-Undan facilities since July 2004.
The Bayu-Undan Project consists of an FPSO facility and three fixed platforms, a remote wellhead platform, and a compression, utilities and quarters platform, which is bridge-linked to a drilling, production and processing platform.
The scope of work for Clough AMEC includes implementation engineering, work package preparation, planning, hazard assessment, co-ordination, offshore field services and implementation.
A positive future for the NT
Mr Henderson, in a previous 2010 interview with The Australian Pipeliner, said “Naturally pipelines are vital to the economic development of the Territory. The resource sector is a key economic sector in the Territory and pipelines connect remote reserves to markets.
“Across the Territory and across our northern waters there are vast distances between resources and the location where they can be marketed, consumed for some gainful purpose, or processed into a form suited to export markets. Pipelines connect those points and are in themselves a significant part of the resource sector and resource investments that pump billions of dollars into our economy,” says
Mr Henderson.
Two years later, the Chief Minister’s words could not be more accurate, with pipelines set to play a huge part in the growth of the LNG processing industry in Australia for many years to come.
