Chevron weighs in at Wheatstone

US supermajor Chevon is to develop an onshore plant to produce liquefied natural gas from its 100%-owned Wheatstone project off Australia’s north-west coast.

Chevron said that the facility would initially have at least one liquefaction train capable of producing 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, with space for future expansion. It said the facility would also provide conventional gas to Australia’s domestic market. "Wheatstone LNG is a tremendous growth opportunity for Chevron, providing another platform to commercialize the company’s significant natural gas resources in Australia," Jim Blackwell, president of Chevron’s Asia Pacific exploration and production arm, said. The Wheatstone field, discovered in 2004, lies 145 kilometres offshore in the Carnarvon basin in about 200 metres of water. Chevron said the initial phase of the project would tap a 4.5 trillion cubic feet reservoir in two of its permits covering the field. Chevron operates both the Wheatstone and Gorgon gas projects off Western Australia, and is a partner in the North-West Shelf Venture. The company is still to make a final investment decision for the Gorgon project, developing in partnership with fellow US giant ExxonMobil. That project could produce 15 million tpa from three trains at a plant on Barrow Island.
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