Van Oord Awarded Major Dredging Contract for Australia’s Ichthys LNG Project

Van Oord announced today that it has been awarded a US $709 million dredging contract in Darwin Harbour as part of the Ichthys LNG Project in Western Australia.

The $34 billion Ichthys LNG Project will haul gas from a field in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia to an onshore liquefaction plant in Darwin via an 889-kilometer subsea pipeline.

The project requires an extension of the Darwin Harbour shipping channel and dredging of berth pockets in order to allow large product tankers access to the proposed LNG facility at Blaydin Point.  Van Oord will dredge approximately 15 million cubic meters of mainly hard soil, which will be carried out by a large self-propelled cutter suction dredger, three large trailing suction hopper dredgers and two large backhoe dredgers.

The Ichthys project, which is a joint venture between Japanese operator INPEX and minority holder Total, will have an initial capacity to produce 8.4 million tons of LNG and 1.6 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) per year, as well as approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at its peak.

Van Oord’s work is expected to start in August 2012 and is scheduled for completion in April 2014.

Construction on the Ichthys LNG Project began in May 2012.

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