Saipem’s Castorone deepwater installation vessel will lay the remaining 718 km offshore section of the 1,066 mm diameter pipeline following the completion of the 164 km shallow water pipelay by the SEMAC-1 vessel in November 2014.
The remaining 7 km of the pipeline is incorporated in the project’s onshore facilities.
Connections nearing completion
Ichthys LNG Project Offshore Director Claude Cahuzac said it was fantastic to start the new year with a significant project milestone.
“Castorone starting work means we are now a major step closer to physically connecting our onshore LNG facilities to the Ichthys field, where our offshore facilities will be moored for the 40-plus year life of the project,” Mr Cahuzac said.
“A significant amount of work has been safely completed to get to this stage of pipeline installation.
“This includes a range of activities in and around Darwin Harbour such as dredging, landfall civil works, rock quarrying and transportation, and marine cable crossings.”
The deepwater pipelay is scheduled for completion in late-2015.
Chimney fall disrupts work onshore
Amid the progress with the project’s offshore systems, an incident in which a 43 m exhaust stack, weighing more than 50 t, crashed to the ground after slipping from cranes at the project’s onshore facilities at Blaydin Point is being investigated by NT WorkSafe, according to ABC News.
While no one was injured as a result, Unions NT Secretary Paul Kirby has criticised INPEX for the time it took to alert staff and suspend activities at the site.
INPEX is currently constructing two LNG trains at Blaydin Point as part of the project’s onshore processing facilities.
Equity interests in the project are INPEX 63.445 per cent, TOTAL 30 per cent, CPC 2.625 per cent, Tokyo Gas 1.575 per cent, Osaka Gas 1.2 per cent, Chubu Electric 0.735 per cent and Toho Gas 0.42 per cent.