According to the Inpex financial report released on Wednesday, the plant shipped 10 LNG cargoes in January, 9 in February, 13 in March, and 11 in April.
This compares to 11 LNG cargoes in January, 10 in February, 9 in March, and 11 in April last year.
In addition to LNG cargoes, the Ichthys project sent 7 plant condensate cargoes, 11 offshore condensate cargoes, and 13 LPG cargoes in January-April this year.
This compares to 7 plant condensate cargoes, 10 offshore condensate cargoes, and 11 LPG cargoes in the same period last year.
Inpex said that Ichthys LNG “continued stable production” from the beginning of the year.
“From mid- to late 2026, connection and commissioning work for the booster compressor module (a low-pressure production facility) is scheduled to take place,” the company said.
Inpex confirmed that it expects to ship an average of 10 LNG cargoes per month, or 120 LNG cargoes in 2026.
Industrial action
Last month, workers at the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG export terminal voted to take industrial action as part of an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.
The parties have agreed to engage in a six-day bargaining facilitated by Australia’s industrial relations umpire, the Fair Work Commission between May 5 and 15, the Offshore Alliance said at the time.
However, the Offshore Alliance said in a social media post on Tuesday that its members working on the Icthys project endorsed serving a notice of protected industrial action to Inpex.
“At last night’s OA/AWU/ETU Inpex members meeting, members endorsed the Unions serving Inpex with a notice of protected industrial action after our last scheduled FWC facilitated bargaining meeting ends on Friday of this week,” it said.
“Whilst the FWC facilitated bargaining last week achieved more in 1 day than in 6 months with Inpex HR, there are a ton of unresolved issues,” the Offshore Alliance said.
A spokesman for Inpex told LNG Prime on Thursday that the company has not received notification of protected industrial action.
“Inpex continues to actively engage in the bargaining process in good faith and work collaboratively to address feedback from our workforce,” he said.
Launched in October 2025, the process has involved extensive engagement from Inpex employees, bargaining representatives, and unions.
Inpex previously said that the proposed enterprise agreement offer was “fair and competitive” and it “maintains alignment of our employment conditions with the external market and meets or exceeds peer conditions in several areas.”
Last year, Ichthys LNG accounted for 8 percent of both Japan and Taiwan’s respective LNG import volumes, delivered via long-term sales and purchase agreements, according to Inpex.
It currently features two trains, but Inpex previously announced plans to build the third liquefaction train.
Ichthys LNG is a joint venture between operator Inpex and major partner TotalEnergies.
In 2024, Inpex also purchased a small stake in Ichthys LNG from compatriot Tokyo Gas to boost its stake from 66.245 percent to 67.82 percent.
Besides TotalEnergies, other partners in the Ichthys project include Australian units of CPC, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, Jera, and Toho Gas.
Natural gas arrives to the LNG plant at Bladin Point, near Darwin, from the giant Ichthys field offshore Western Australia via an 890-kilometer-long export pipeline.
(Article updated to include a response by an Inpex spokesman.)
