Inpex Holdings Inc., Japan's largest oil explorer, selected the Maret Islands off Australia's northwestern coast as its preferred site for the liquefied natural gas project. The plant will use Inpex's 100 percent owned Ichthys field in the Browse basin north of Broome about 200 kilometres offshore in water depths between 90m and 340m. The field is estimated to hold more than 9.5 Tcf of natural gas and 312 million barrels of condensates. In September 2006, French operator Total bought 24% stake in the project.

Inpex and Total plan to spend $6.4-8.1 billion on the venture, making it the biggest gas production project headed by a Japanese company. Ichthys Field is planned to be developed as an LNG export project, initially producing approximately 6MTPA of LNG for export. Expansion of the facilities will be determined by market conditions and availability of potential gas reserves in the future. INPEX estimates that Ichthys Field has sufficient gas resources for a production life longer than 30 years. In addition to the LNG production, around 100,000 bbl/day of condensate and LPG will also be produced at the peak rate.

Key elements of the project are:

• Offshore facilities, including subsea production wells located in and around the field to recover and partially treat gas and condensate
• Subsea pipeline, to transmit hydrocarbons from the offshore facilities to an onshore location
• Onshore gas treatment and LNG production facilities, including product storage for LNG, condensate and LPG
• Loading and handling facilities

Granherne has been awarded a contract to provide field concept screening. The FEED will proceed for one year starting in the fourth quarter of 2007. A final investment decision is due in late 2008.

Subject to obtaining approvals and receiving a production license, Inpex is currently planning for the production of LNG, condensate and LPG to commence approximately mid-2012. The project has recently been granted Major Project Facilitation (MPF) status by the Australian Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources.