US-based energy major Chevron plans to close in May the second production train at its giant Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia.
“We have a planned pit-stop on Gorgon Train 2 next month to replicate performance improvement modifications that we have made in the other two trains,” Pat Yarrington , Chevron’s vice president and chief financial officer, said during an earnings call on Friday.
To remind, Chevron started-up the third and the last train at the Gorgon facility that has a total capacity of 15.6 million mt/year in March last year.
Yarrington did not reveal how much time would the maintenance take.
At the same time, work on the company’s second LNG export project in Western Australia is progressing.
“Work on Wheatstone Train 2 is progressing well and commissioning activities are ongoing. The warm end is expected to be ready for start up shortly and we are expecting to begin LNG production this quarter,” Yarrington said.
First quarter net production was 202,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Gorgon and 67,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Wheatstone.
“We shipped 69 LNG and 4 condensate cargoes and were able to take advantage of rising oil-linked prices as well as strong Asia LNG spot prices, which averaged over $10 per BOE for the quarter,” Yarrington said.
He added that Chevron is continuing to fine-tune the plants to enhance reliability and boost capacity.
“These efforts are yielding favorable results. Gorgon first-quarter production is more than 5% higher than our previous best quarter, and Wheatstone Train 1 has been running well,” he said.
LNG World News Staff