Chevron Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dave O’Reilly said “The good news is that we’re finding tremendous interest in the gas itself from the market, and I am absolutely convinced that we will have a successful outcome here. Just as we have done on other projects, we will execute heads of agreement with the appropriate parties that will be contingent on final investment decision.
“You will continue to see progress in this area as we move the project along during the coming months and next year. So our big efforts right now is on the marketing of Wheatstone and we are finding a very receptive market,”? Mr O’Reilly said.
Mr O’Reilly said that additional gas is now available from Chevron and other third parties for future expansion in order to establish the Wheatstone project as an LNG hub. He said that the company expects to make a final investment decision on the project in 2011.
Chevron signed an agreement in October with Apache Energy and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) to provide gas from their Jumilar and Brunello fields, located on the North West Shelf, for trains 1 and 2 of the Wheatstone project.
Chevron plans to produce 10 million tonnes per annum (MMt/a) of LNG through two 5 MMt/a trains for the Wheatstone LNG Development, with the possibility of an additional three trains that would extend the project’s capacity to 25 MMt/a of LNG. Two export pipelines have been proposed to transport gas from the fields to the onshore plant for the Wheatstone development.
However, Mr O’Reilly said that the company aims to focus on developing the Wheatstone project in order to complement its involvement in the Gorgon LNG Development.
“I think the question for the longer term is one that we will have to weigh around some of the other projects as well and that is ensuring that we phase them in. That’s one of the reasons that we put Wheatstone behind Gorgon, because we want to pass the peak of Gorgon and be on the down slope before we pick up Wheatstone,”? Mr O’Reilly said.
Mr O’Reilly said that the company has secured long-term sales and purchase agreements for more than 40 per cent of its stake in the Gorgon LNG Development.
“We also held up agreement in place for roughly another 40 per cent of production and expect to finalise these agreements in the coming months.”?
The Gorgon LNG Development involves the installation of a subsea gathering system and pipelines from the Gorgon and Io/Jansz fields to Barrow Island. Three 5 MMt/a LNG trains, to be located on the central-east coast of Barrow Island, will process the gas.
Chevron holds a 100 per cent interest in the Wheatstone LNG Development, and is the operator of the Gorgon LNG Development with joint venture partners ExxonMobil and Shell.