May 2016, Vol. 243, No. 5
Features
Chevron’s First Shipment of LNG from Gorgon Departs Australia
Chevron Corp. announced March 20 that its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gorgon Project has departed Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The cargo was to be delivered to one of Chevron’s foundation buyers, Chubu Electric Power, for delivery into Japan.
“Departure of the first cargo from the Gorgon Project is a key milestone in our commitment to be a reliable LNG provider for customers across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Mike Wirth, executive vice president, Chevron Midstream and Development. “This is also important for our investors as we begin to generate revenue from a project we expect will operate for decades to come.”
LNG is an essential fuel for power generation across Asia, and natural gas is among the fastest growing segments of Chevron’s energy portfolio. Chevron said its Australian projects are well located to supply natural gas for the region and over 80% of its Australian subsidiaries’ equity LNG from the Gorgon and Wheatstone projects is covered by sales and purchase agreements and heads of agreements with customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Gorgon Project is supplied from the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields, located within the Greater Gorgon area, between 80 miles (130 km) and 136 miles (220 km) off the northwest coast of Western Australia. It includes a 15.6 MTPA LNG plant on Barrow Island, a carbon dioxide injection project and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to supply 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western Australia.
On April 6 Chevron Australia Pty Ltd advised that LNG production at the Gorgon Project had to be temporarily halted due to mechanical issues with the propane refrigerant circuit on Train 1 at the plant site.
Startup of Train 1 and associated infrastructure is well advanced with first LNG production achieved on March 7 and production peaking at nearly 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The propane refrigerant circuit is a closed system used to cool natural gas supplied to the plant. Work necessary to complete the repairs continued while the site team worked on equipment inspection and assessment. Based on initial findings, the repair work is of a routine nature and all the necessary equipment and material is available on site. A restart of the plant within 30-60 days is estimated at this time, Chevron said in a news release.
Train 1 ramp-up to full capacity is still expected to occur over six to eight months from initial start-up of the facility. Meanwhile, construction activities continue to progress on LNG Trains 2 and 3 with timing not affected by the work on Train 1.
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