The Inpex-operated giant Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project near Darwin in Australia has received a cooldown cargo.

To remind, Japan’s Inpex said earlier this week it purchased a cargo of the chilled fuel in order to cool down the liquefaction facility at Bladin Point prior to the start-up.

The 182,000-cbm LNG carrier Pacific Breeze arrived in Darwin on Thursday and was on Friday docked at the Ichthys LNG plant, according to the Port of Darwin.

The tanker is dedicated to delivering Ichthys LNG volumes to Taiwan’s CPC Corporation under the agreement signed in 2012.

The LNG cargo the tanker has brought will be used to cool down tanks and pipes.

At the end of March, Inpex said the project’s central processing facility Ichthys Explorer, located offshore Western Australia, would complete trial operations in April-May, and start gas production.

After that, the production and shipment of condensate, LNG and LPG will start in sequence.

Once the production starts up, the Ichthys LNG project is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnnes of LPG at peak annually, with up to 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

The project is a joint venture between Inpex, major partner Total, Taiwan’s CPC Corporation and the Australian subsidiaries of Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric Power and Toho Gas.

LNG World News Staff