Warren R. True
Chief Technology Editor-LNG/Gas Processing
HOUSTON, Dec. 4 -- Chevron Corp. announced the awarding of upstream front-end engineering and design contracts for its Wheatstone LNG project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The upstream scope includes subsea gas gathering for Wheatstone and Iago fields, an offshore production platform, and a 200-km pipeline connecting the platform to the downstream gas plant at Ashburton North, 12 km west of Onslow.
As operator, Chevron awarded FEED contracts for the upstream (offshore) portion to Intecsea Pty. Ltd. for design of subsea gas gathering and pipeline and to Technip Oceania Pty. Ltd. for design of the production platform.
Wheatstone will consist of a two-train, 8.6 million tonne/year liquefaction plant and a domestic natural gas processing plant at Ashburton North.
In July, Chevron awarded the downstream (onshore) FEED contract for the Wheatstone LNG and gas plants and export facilities to Bechtel Oil Gas and Chemicals Inc. (OGJ, OGJ Online, July 30, 2009).
Under agreement with partners Apache Julimar Pty. Ltd., and KUFPEC Australia (Julimar) Pty. Ltd., Apache and Kufpec will provide natural gas from their Julimar and Brunello fields in northwestern Australia to supply 25% of the inlet gas to LNG Trains 1 and 2 of the project.
The rest of the feed gas will come from Chevron's Wheatstone field, discovered in 2004 in the WA-253-P and WA-17-R permit areas in 650 ft of water. The adjacent Iago field, discovered in 2000, spans two retention permits: WA-17-R, wholly owned by Chevron Australia, and WA-16-R, in which Chevron has majority interest.
Wheatstone consists of Chevron subsidiaries Chevron Australia Pty. Ltd. and Chevron (TAPL) Pty. Ltd. (75%), Apache Julimar, a unit of Apache (16.25%), and Kufpec, a unit of the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (8.75%; OGJ, Nov. 2, 2009, p. 11).
Contact Warren R. True at [email protected].