Angola LNG Restarts

Angola LNG has resumed production after a shutdown over the Christmas period. "I confirm that Angola LNG's plant has restarted production," a spokesperson for the venture told NGW January 4 but declined to say when it restarted.

The same spokesperson said December 23: "Angola LNG is conducting a controlled shutdown for a minor intervention and expects to resume production shortly" declining to say when the outage began.

The 5.2mn metric ton/yr capacity, Bechtel-built, Chevron-led, Angola LNG has had a series of planned and unscheduled outages since it resumed exports in June 2016, following a two-year complete stoppage for major repairs. It began exporting in mid-2013 and cost $10bn to build. That however excludes the cost of major post-2013 modifications. It is the world's first liquefaction project designed to run solely on associated gas that otherwise would be flared.

Meanwhile Chevron, as operator of the Gorgon LNG venture offshore Western Australia, told Reuters news agency that Gorgon train 1 resumed operations earlier this week, following an outage that started in November. Train 2 started production in October 2016 and was unaffected by the T1 outage. Each of the two trains, plus a third yet to start up, has 5.2mn metric ton/yr LNG production capacity. Gorgon at $54bn is the most expensive LNG complex ever built.

On top of the customary cost overruns, there were also Western Australia's regulatory requirements that cost additional money, such as the $1.5bn (US) carbon sequestration project on Barrow Island.

Mark Smedley