Australia: NWS gas deals to extend life of Karratha plant

The Woodside-led North West Shelf joint venture has signed preliminary deals to process third-party gas, extending the operating life of the Karratha gas and LNG plant.

NWS joint venture signed the non-binding deals on November 6 with the Browse joint venture, where Woodside is the operator as well, and Chevron, the leaseholder of the Clio-Acme fields, to process their offshore gas resources through the NWS facilities on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said in a  statement that the deals were a key step toward the realisation of the Burrup Hub concept, which will extend the operating life of the NWS project’s Karratha plant for decades beyond 2025.

“Central to our vision for the Burrup Hub is the transition of the Karratha Gas Plant into a third-party tolling facility as the NWS Joint Venture fields reach the end of their lives,” he said.

“The Browse Joint Venture will be the anchor tenant underpinning that transition and this preliminary agreement enables the participants to progress toward an earlier final investment decision to develop the gas resource, targeted for 2020,” Coleman said.

Gas from Clio-Acme is planned to be brought to the Burrup Hub through the Woodside-operated Pluto offshore infrastructure and then transported via the proposed Pluto-NWS Interconnector pipeline to be processed at the Karratha gas plant.

The signatories will now continue negotiations to reach binding, fully termed agreements, the statement said.