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April 02, 2025

For further information, please contact:

Endre Johansen, Corporate Communications AS
Telephone: +47 41 61 06 05
Email: endre.johansen@corpcom.no

About ABL Group ASA

ABL Group (OSE: ABL Group ASA – ticker code “ABL”) is a leading independent global consultancy delivering energy, marine, engineering and digital solutions to drive safety and sustainability in renewables, maritime and oil & gas sectors. The group has offices in 39 countries worldwide and operates under four brands: ABL, OWC, Longitude and AGR.

ABL completes marquee installation lift at Ichthys

Energy and marine consultancy ABL has supported INPEX with the successful lift installation of a Booster Compression Module (BCM) onto the operator’s central processing facility (CPF), Ichthys Explorer – part of Australia’s Ichthys LNG.

The landmark project involved the loadout, near shore transfer lift, marine transportation from Asia to Australia and the offshore installation of the 4,500 tonnes compression module onto the CPF.

abl gROUP eNERGY mANAGING dIRECTOR, aLEX hARRISON, ATTENDING ON-SITE.

The lift was conducted with the Sleipnir, a semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV), operated by Heerema Marine Contractors, utilising one of her two massive 10,000 tonne capacity cranes.

The installation lift is one of, if not the, heaviest lift ever performed onto an already operating floating production unit.

“ABL has supported INPEX with its various development phases of the Ichthys Field for close to 15 years, and we were delighted to be asked to support them during this latest essential and complex development stage too. The installation of the BCM will help maintain the CPF’s production rates throughout its 40-year design life.”

Alex Harrison, ABL Group Managing Director for Energy

Due to the floating nature of the receiving platform, the project involved considerable work in the assessment of the pre-ballasted and post-installation inclinations of the CPF, and the effects of mooring stiffness on these inclinations. The project also involved significant work in the assessment of multi-body relative motions for the installation vessel and the CPF. These were to determine the installation loads, resulting limiting installation sea states, the design of the lift rigging which included some of the largest man-made fibre slings ever fabricated, and the design and installation of a novel bumper and guiding system.

“This has been one of the most interesting technical projects I have ever been involved with, and it was an honour to personally be the attending surveyor for the nearshore transfer, transportation and offshore lift operations. It will certainly go down as a true highlight of my 30 years in the industry.”

Adds Alex Harrison

ABL is the energy and marine consultancy branch of Oslo-listed global consultancy ABL Group ASA.

Learn more about ABL’s global offering in marine warranty survey, supporting more than 900 projects in 2024 alone.

Our market-leading offering supports projects from transportation and installation (T&I), operations and maintenance (O&M), marine transportation for project cargo, to life extension and decommissioning:

Marine Warranty Survey