LNG

Saipem, the company currently working on the major global LNG project, said it received a contract to conduct booster compression module front-end engineering and design services for the Australian Ichthys LNG export plant operated by Japan’s Inpex Corp.

The Italian company said it planned to install the BCM onto the “Ichthys Explorer” central processing facility.

The scope of work comprises the BCM front-end engineering and includes the option to provide a lump-sum price to execute the full engineering, procurement and construction scope from detailed design through to fabrication and load out.

Inpex is operator of the onshore Ichthys plant at Bladin Point near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

The Australian Ichthys plant came on stream in 2018 and produces almost 9 million tonnes per annum of LNG from two processing Trains, while the Ichthys gas field is offshore northwest Australia and connected to the plant by a 890-kilometre subsea pipeline to Bladin Point.

Shares in Ichthys LNG held by Inpex amount to around 66 percent of equity, while French major Total has 26 percent.

Micro-stakes are additionally held by customers CPC Corp. of Taiwan and Japan’s main utilities and LNG buyers, JERA Co. Inc., Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric and Toho Gas.

“This contract furthers our presence in this strategic market,” said Gianalberto Secchi, Saipem Offshore Area Manager for the North Pacific-East Indian Ocean region.

Saipem has an impressive amount of work in its LNG project portfolio, especially on the subsea side and is currently involved in Mozambique LNG in southeast Africa in addition to other ventures.

Saipem is also involved with TechnipFMC, the Franco-US energy and LNG engineering company, in the Arctic LNG II venture being development by Russian natural gas company Novatek and its partners.

The Italian firm has additionally been retained for the engineering contract on the new seventh Train and debottlenecking project for Nigeria LNG.

That joint venture comprises Saipem, Chiyoda Corp. of Japan and Daewoo Engineering of South Korea.