Japan's Inpex Corporation has announced that a final investment decision on its Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) project may be delayed until January.
Inpex and its partner, France's Total, had been targeting FID by the end of 2011.
In a statement, Inpex said it "has been steadily progressing towards the FID to be made by the end of this year".
"While this remains our target, taking into account administrative constraints during the Christmas season and New Year holiday periods, the decision may slip into mid-January 2012."
The Ichthys project, tipped to cost about $30 billion, involves extracting gas from fields off the KImberley coast and piping it to a liquefaction plant at Darwin.
