Dredging began in August 2012, with Dutch dredging company, Van Oord, leading the programme.
“Without dredging, the Project would not have been able to progress marine construction work on the module offloading facility and jetty, which are critical pieces of onshore infrastructure,” explained Harutoshi Usui, dredging manager, INPEX, which part owns Ichthys LNG.
“The dredging campaign was also our most visible piece of work in Darwin and an opportunity to show that we could meet our commitments to the community, including environment and heritage commitments.”
“At the peak of the dredging campaign we had more than 300 people working on the programme, as well as a range of local businesses including subcontractors for auxiliary marine equipment, workshop, welders, catering, accommodation and transport,” he added.
A smaller dredging programme for the project’s gas export pipeline has also been completed with dredgers.
The Ichthys Project, which is being carried out by Australian oil and gas producer, Inpex, will have an initial capacity to produce 8.4m tonnes of LNG per annum. When launched in 2017, it will also have an initial capacity to produce 1.6m tonne of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and around 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak.