Bechtel Completes 12th LNG Train in Four Years

US engineering giant Bechtel has now built its 12th gas liquefaction train in just four years, for the Chevron-led Wheatstone LNG project in Western Australia, it said July 19. This is more than any other company, it said. In that time it has delivered trains for five customers, of which a third were for Cheniere in the US Gulf.

The first LNG sales started November 2017 from Wheatstone LNG’s first train, a few months behind target, and supplied the cargo for Jera in Japan. The second train started up in June. The $34bn Wheatstone LNG plant’s final capacity is 8.9mn metric tons/yr. Its domestic gas supply plant is progressing and is due online later in the year.

The Chevron-operated LNG facility is a joint venture between Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (64.14%), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec) (13.4%), Woodside Petroleum (13%), and Kyushu Electric Power Company (1.46%), together with PE Wheatstone Pty which is part owned by JERA (8%). Chevron holds an 80.2% interest in the offshore licenses containing the Wheatstone and Iago fields.

Bechtel’s LNG general manager Darren Mort said: “Bechtel’s LNG team is building on a proven track record of delivering world-class projects that help our customers bring an important energy source to the global economy.... The milestones our teams have accomplished in the past three and a half years have been extraordinary”, he added. 

In the US, Bechtel continues to support Cheniere Energy’s LNG growth on the Gulf Coast, delivering four LNG trains and constructing an additional four trains (see below, image by Bechtel). To date, Bechtel has delivered 42 LNG trains in 10 countries accounting for more than 30% of the world’s LNG capacity.