Qualla: Ichthys Gas Field

Ichthys Gas Field: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ichthys is the Greek word for fish. The name was chosen for a natural gas field discovered in the Timor Sea in 2000, 220 kilometres offshore from Western Australia in 250 metres of water. Whether the name was meant to acknowledge the marine environment being industrialised beneath it, or was simply a convenient label for a geological formation, is unclear. What followed the discovery was not subtle: one of the largest engineering projects ever undertaken in Australia, with an initial cost estimate of US$34 billion that grew to US$37 billion before the first gas flowed.

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Ichthys Gas Field: The Floating City

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The heart of the Ichthys operation is the Central Processing Facility, a semi-submersible platform named the Ichthys Explorer. It is the world's largest semi-submersible platform, weighing approximately 120,000 tonnes. Its topsides measure approximately 130 metres across. The fac...

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Ichthys Gas Field: 889 Kilometres to Darwin

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The gas extracted at the Ichthys field travels 889 kilometres through a subsea pipeline to a liquefaction plant at Bladin Point, near Darwin. This is the longest subsea pipeline in the Southern Hemisphere. At Bladin Point, two processing trains convert the gas into liquefied natu...

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Ichthys Gas Field: Scale and Consequence

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Ichthys project is more expensive per tonne of LNG production than the Chevron-sponsored Gorgon project — the other giant LNG development off northwestern Australia — despite Gorgon's higher total cost. The difference is geography: Ichthys is far from shore, in deep water, co...

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