First Cargo Leaves Wheatstone Project

The first shipment of LNG has departed from the Wheatstone LNG project in Western Australia, which began production earlier this month, operator Chevron said October 31.

The cargo is to be delivered to one of Chevron’s foundation buyers, Jera, for delivery in Japan, the company said.

“The Wheatstone Project is Australia’s first third-party natural gas hub enabling future development of the vast natural gas resources offshore Western Australia. Through collaboration our goal is to efficiently develop and commercialise this resource,” Chevron Australia managing director Nigel Hearne said.

At full capacity, the Wheatstone Project’s two-train LNG facility is expected to contribute around 6% of the Asia Pacific region’s total future LNG production, delivering 8.9mn metric tons/year of LNG for export to customers in Asia, Chevron says.

The project’s domestic gas plant also has the capacity to produce 200 terajoules/day of domestic gas for the Western Australian market.

The Wheatstone project began production, after months of delays, on October 9. Chevron said earlier in the year that the second train at the two-train project is expected to start-up six-to-eight months after train 1.

The Chevron-operated Wheatstone LNG facility is a joint venture between Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (64.14%), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (13.4%), Woodside Petroleum (13%), and Kyushu Electric Power Company (1.46%), together with PE Wheatstone, part owned by Jera (8%).

Chevron says that a single cargo of LNG from the Wheatstone project could power Japan for around nine hours.

Once the project is fully operational, Chevron is expected to be Australia’s largest liquefaction owner with 15.8mn mt/year, it says. 

Nathan Richardson