Darwin LNG civil works contract awarded

A 50:50 joint venture between Leighton subsidiary John Holland and Macmahon has won a AU$ 340 million (US$ 356 million) site development contract for the onshore facilities of the Ichthys liquid natural gas (LNG) project near Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory.

The contract was awarded by the JKC Joint Venture, which consists of JGC, KBR, and Chiyoda, and comes a week after the developers awarded a AUD 370 million (US$ 389 million) contract for the design and construction of the loading Jetty for the Ichthys LNG project.

The latest contract will see the Macmahon/John Holland joint venture deliver the finished earthwork levels for the LNG plant and associated facilities, including the construction of access roads, earthworks, drainage and ground improvement.

The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between operator INPEX, which owns 76% of the project, and energy company Total, which owns 24%. The development will see gas from the Ichthys Field, in the Browse Basin approximately 200 km off Western Australia, undergo preliminary processing offshore before being exported to onshore processing facilities in Darwin via an 889 km subsea pipeline.

The Ichthys LNG Project is expected to produce 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas a year, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.

Site works for the project are expected to start in early April, and are scheduled for completion in mid-2014.