Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corporation (MCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), has received an order for nine compressors and seven motors to drive compressors for the Ichthys LNG Project. The equipment on order gives MCO a key role in the first large-scale LNG development project led by a Japanese company. The order will be sequentially delivered beginning in August 2013. MCO received the compressor order from JKC Ichthys LNG Joint Venture (JKC JV), a joint venture formed by JGC Corporation, KBR and Chiyoda Corporation, which has contracted the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the land-based LNG plant facility for the project. Daiichi Jitsugyo will handle the trade particulars. The Ichthys LNG Project is a joint venture between INPEX (76%, the operator) and Total (24%). Gas from the Ichthys Field, in the Browse Basin approximately 200km offshore of Western Australia, will undergo preliminary processing offshore to remove water and extract condensate. The gas will then be exported to onshore processing facilities in Darwin via an 889km subsea pipeline. The Ichthys LNG Project is expected to produce 8.4 million tns of LNG and 1.6 million tns of LPG per annum, along with approximately 100,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak. The total cost of the project is USD 34 billion. The compressors to be supplied by MCO will support processes to produce LNG from natural gas and at the same time play a role in reusing the vaporized gas in LNG/LPG tanks as fuel gas. The project’s annual LNG production volume is equivalent to more than 10% of Japan’s annual LNG import amount. As approximately 70% of the LNG produced through the Ichthys LNG Project is slated for export to Japan, the project holds significant meaning for Japan in terms of long-term stability in energy supply and diversification of the country’s energy sources.