The Chevron-led Wheatstone LNG project west of Onslow, Australia is expected to start production next month, Chevron’s chairman and CEO John Watson said on Friday.
Earlier this month, Woodside, a partner in the Wheatstone LNG project, said the facility’s first liquefaction train is in the final stages of commissioning .
Chevron added in its quarterly report that the offshore platform is operational with the trunkline fully pressurized. It also noted that work on the project’s second liquefaction train is on schedule with Train 2 expected to start production six to eight months following the commissioning of Train 1.
At full capacity, the two liquefaction trains will be producing 8.9 million tons per annum of LNG.
Wheatstone LNG is a joint venture between Australian units of Chevron (64.14 percent), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (13.4 percent), Woodside (13 percent), and Kyushu Electric Power Company (1.46 percent), together with PE Wheatstone, part owned by JERA (8 percent).
Speaking following the company’s report of a $1.5 billion profit for the second quarter in 2017, remaining flat compared to the $1.5 billion in the corresponding quarter in 2016, Watson added that the Gorgon facility produced above nameplate capacity during the quarter, with 88 cargoes shipped from the plant so far this year.
Chevron further added that its average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $41 in second quarter 2017, up from $36 a year earlier. The average sales price of natural gas was $2.32 per thousand cubic feet in second quarter 2017, compared with $1.21 in last year’s second quarter.