Apache exiting Wheatstone and Kitimat LNG projects

Houston-based Apache said on Thursday that it intends to completely exit Australia’s Wheatstone and Canada’s Kitimat LNG projects to focus on drilling onshore in North America.

“Consistent with the company’s ongoing repositioning for profitable and repeatable North American onshore growth, Apache intends to completely exit the Wheatstone and Kitimat LNG projects.

“In addition, Apache is evaluating its international assets and exploring multiple opportunities, including the potential separation of some or all of these assets through the capital markets,” Apache said in its second quarter report.

Apache has a 65 percent interest in the Julimar and Brunello fields, which will provide feed-gas for the Chevron-operated Wheatstone project, and a 13-percent equity interest in phase one of the project.

As per the Kitimat project, Apache operates the upstream development of 644,000 acres in British Columbia’s giant Horn River and Liard shale gas discoveries in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Chevron is responsible for marketing the LNG, and will operate the LNG plant and pipeline assets.