Ichthys Offshore Project Drilling Underway

The Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project has commenced drilling at the Ichthys gas-condensate field, about 200km off the Western Australian coast.

The first development well was spudded on 3 February, 2015 by the project’s development drilling rig ENSCO-5006, which recently arrived at the field after undergoing major upgrades in Singapore.

Managing Director Ichthys LNG Project Louis Bon said the safe start to the drilling campaign was another major milestone for the project. “Today we officially mark the beginning of our development drilling program after years of intensive optimization studies and detailed planning,” Bon said.

“This campaign will target the Brewster reservoir with 20 production wells. The wells will be drilled into reservoirs about 4,000 to 4,500m beneath the seabed.”

The project will use directional drilling technology and the wells will be grouped around five drill centers, each designed to accommodate 4-6 wells. The ENSCO-5006 will be joined at a later date by Transocean’s semisubmersible drilling rig, Jack Bates. Both rigs will be supported with aviation and marine services, as well as bulk goods supplies, from Inpex’s dedicated offshore logistics base in Broome, Western Australia.

The next Ichthys LNG project milestone, scheduled to commence in the coming weeks, will be the start of the deepwater pipelay for the project’s 889 km-long gas export pipeline.