We are very pleased to have won the contract for what is to become one of the world’s largest semi-submersible production platforms. This is also a breakthrough for our offshore activities into the Australian market, said Tore Sjursen, president for Aker Solutions’ international oil and gas operations.
Aker Solutions will be applying world-leading technological expertise when it starts working on the offshore facilities FEED contract for the Ichthys project in the Browse basin off north-western Australia. Aker Solutions has a well established track record in the field, having built more than 50 floating facilities since 1972 – mainly in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
Project operator INPEX Browse Ltd recently awarded the contract to lead contractor AMEC Engineering Pty Ltd, with Aker Solutions contracted to carry out the CPF and FPSO hull FEED engineering work. FEED is the project development phase in which the plans for the offshore and onshore facilities are defined, designed and evaluated in more detail.
Tore Sjursen said he hoped the expertise utilized in this project would be found to be useful for other Australian oil and gas offshore projects in the future.
We have been working to strengthen our oil and gas presence in Australia over the past three years and see this project as key in terms of realizing our growth ambitions in the North West Australian market, Sjursen said.
The Ichthys project is expected to have an initial capacity to produce more than eight million tonnes of LNG per annum, around 1.6 million tones of LPG per annum and 100 000 barrels of condensate per day at peak. The first shipment of LNG is scheduled to be loaded in 2015.
