Japan's Inpex ships first LNG cargo from Ichthys project

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Inpex Corp said on Tuesday it has sent its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment from the giant Ichthys project in Australia.

The LNG vessel Pacific Breeze departed the onshore liquefaction plant at the Ichthys LNG Terminal in Darwin late on Monday, and is scheduled to arrive at Inpex's Naoetsu LNG receiving terminal in Japan around the middle of next week, a company spokesman said.

The announcement was in line with Reuters' report last week that the loading of LNG was under way. The shipment marks an important milestone for Inpex. The $40 billion project has had multiple delays and significant cost overruns.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; editing by Richard Pullin)