Chevron Corp. reported that a fourth train will be constructed as part of the Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island, Western Australia. Geryon field, discovered in 2001, and Chandon field, discovered in 2006, will supply the new 5.2 million tonne/year capacity LNG train.
This will bring the Gorgon project output capacity to 20.8 million tpy. Chevron confirmed the plan while hosting a group of investors around a recent site visit.
Geryon and Chandon will supply about 11 tcf of gas to the project. Gas from both fields is low in carbon dioxide and high in deliverability. Nevertheless the news has been a surprise since previous plans were to hold the gas from these two fields until the Gorgon and Jansz fields began to run down.
The fourth train work will include construction of a fourth LNG storage tank on Barrow and the laying of a third pipeline to feed the project.
An environmental impact assessment has already been lodged with the Western Australian government and front-end engineering and design on the proposed expansion will begin late this year.
Gorgon area manager Colin Beckett said the successful appraisal of pre-2009 fields discovered in the region as well as development drilling on existing discoveries had given Chevron the confidence to declare a fourth train viable without affecting the gas input for the first three trains.
The fourth train will be leveraged off existing infrastructure on Barrow Island to achieve the new train at the lowest cost. Although no figure was mentioned analysts believe a fourth train expansion would cost about $10 billion (Aus.).
First LNG from the Gorgon-Jansz project is still scheduled for 2014.
