Wheatstone LNG to come on stream in August

Chevron Australia reports that the first production train of its $34-billion Wheatstone LNG project in Western Australia is now in the final stages of commissioning. Production should begin in the next few weeks.

The project was originally slated for an end-2016 on-stream date, later amended to mid-2017 and then again to August 2017. Cost overrun, $5 billion, is modest compared with the $17-billion overrun recorded for the company’s larger Gorgon-Jansz project.

Head of the company’s upstream division, Jay Johnson, said in a quarterly briefing in the US that the Wheatstone offshore platform and pipeline to shore were up and running and initial performance of the production wells has been encouraging.

The 8.9 million-tonnes/year project’s second train is on track to be brought on stream early next year, 6-8 months after the first train, Johnson added. Construction will wind down in the December 2017 quarter prior to the start of plant commissioning.

Johnson said that the start-up of the third train at Gorgon in March had gone smoothly and all three trains at the project are “stable at or above nameplate.” Chevron is now focusing on opportunities to increase reliability.

The 15.6 million-tpy Gorgon-Jansz development produced 333,000 boe/d on average in the June quarter and the project is currently well above that, averaging 430,000 boe/d.

There have been 88 LNG cargos shipped from the project so far this year.