Conditional Environmental Approval Granted for Australia's Ichthys LNG Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Conditional approval has been granted by the Australian federal government for the Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Northern Territory. A final announcement of approval by Australia's Environmental Minister Tony Burke is due on July 7.

The government of the Northern Territory granted approval on April 19, 2011. An approval announcement from the federal government was originally planned for June 8, but was subsequently moved out to July.

The Ichthys project, owned by INPEX Corporation (TYO:1605) (Tokyo), has a total investment value of $39.6 billion. This has escalated from a stated required investment of $25 billion in early 2010. A final investment decision (FID) will be reached at the end of 2011, and no further delays are expected as a result of the environmental permitting process or other matters. INPEX had delayed the 2009 FID as a result of financial impediments. The company then delayed the extended FID proposed for mid 2010 to allow for additional time to perform front end engineering and design (FEED).

The Ichthys project will include an 885-kilometre (550-mile) subsea pipeline from the floating production and storage offloading facility in the Browse Basin, in Western Australia, to reach the LNG plant in Darwin, Northern Territory. The plant will have an initial output capacity of 8.4 million metric tonnes per year, 1.6 million metric tons per year of LPG, and a maximum of 1,000 barrels of condensate per day. There is sufficient gas in the Ichthys field to cater for up to six 4.2 million-ton-per-year processing trains.

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