LOC provides loss prevention, loss management and marine and engineering consultancy services across the oil and gas sector, and renewables industry internationally. 

Over recent years it has strategically focused on growing its presence in the Australasian region. 

Under the award, the consultant will continue to provide its review and verification services to Inpex as it looks to enter phase 2 of its Ichthys development. 

The agreement will cover marine warranty services, marine assurance, and associated drilling design operations. It will also include warranty review and approval for loadout, transportation, and installation activities of new field architecture. 

LOC Asia Pacific Energy Services director Alex Harrison said the award was competitively tendered and he was pleased the Japanese LNG developer had chosen the UK engineering firm. 

"Having supported Inpex on the Ichthys LNG development for the past seven years, we are therefore very pleased to have been awarded this additional work," Harrison said. 

"The contract award closely follows a number of other recent award with oil majors and oil and gas contractors within the region, demonstrating that we remain at the forefront of the MWS and marine consulting markets in Australia." 

The announcement comes just a day after Inpex revealed it had successfully refinanced a huge part of its Ichthys LNG project. 

It took roughly a month for Inpex as operator to renegotiate its financing arrangements with seven export credit agencies and 28 commercial banks, with the aim of improving its borrowing rates underpinning the development and future expansion of Ichthys. 

Inpex has around US$15.6 billion worth of loans for Ichthys. Of this, US$8.3 billion was refinanced.

The next phase development includes 15 new development wells, drilled in water depths of 275 metres, which will then be tied back to existing infrastructure.