(Adds details)
TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Inpex Corp 1605.T says it expects the giant $40 billion Ichthys project in Australia to start shipping condensate, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in that order from around end-September to end-December.
Inpex, operator of the project, began producing gas from the Ichthys field off northern Australia on July 27, delayed from a previous projection of sometime in June. about the timing for first shipments of condensate, LNG and LPG, Inpex's Senior Managing Executive Officer Masahiro Murayama told reporters it would take roughly two to three months from the start of production from the well during a briefing on its first quarter earnings results. of products from the project would likely start around the beginning of the last six months of the company's fiscal year on Oct. 1, he said.
Inpex says Ichthys will help add net profit of 10 billion yen ($90 million) in the second half of 2018/19, down from its May outlook of 24 billion yen due to the delay in gas output from its previous schedule.
It is expected to take two or three years to reach the project's full capacity of 8.9 million tonnes of LNG a year, along with 1.7 million tonnes of LPG and 100,000 barrels per day of condensate, an ultra-light form of crude oil. owns just over 62 percent of Ichthys, with France's Total SA TOTF.PA holding 30 percent. The remainder is owned by Taiwan's CPC Corp CHIP.UL and Japanese utilities.
($1 = 111.0100 yen)