Australia’s Ichthys LNG Project, led by Japan’s Inpex Corp., is expected to come online about 10 months later than previously planned and have about 6% greater capacity, Inpex said.

Ichthys had been scheduled to start up around the end of 2016, but is now scheduled for start-up during the third quarter of 2017. Capacity is expected to be 8.9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which is 6% more than the initially planned 8.4 mtpa.

While the project’s overall development was 74% complete as of June, Inpex updated the production schedule based on a review of the development schedule. “It is expected that the revised production start-up schedule and other factors will increase the project’s investment. However, the increase is expected to be limited to approximately 10%,” the company said.

The increase in production capacity is based on a recent evaluation of the project, which entails liquefying natural gas lifted from the Ichthys gas-condensate field offshore Western Australia.

“All the LNG initially planned to be produced from the project has been sold,” said Inpex CEO Toshiaki Kitamura. “Of this, about 70% of the LNG is set to be supplied to Japan, and this is expected to further contribute to the long-term, stable supply of energy to the country and improve Japan’s energy procurement risk management [see Daily GPI, March 11, 2013].”

Participating with Inpex (operator, 62.245% interest) in the Ichthys project are Total SA (30%), CPC Corp. Taiwan (2.625%), Tokyo Gas (1.575%), Osaka Gas (1.2%), Kansai Electric (1.2%), Chubu Electric Power (0.735%) and Toho Gas (0.42%).