CB&I scores $625M Wheatstone project gig

CB&I today announced it has been awarded a contract by Bechtel valued in excess of  $625 million (approximately A$690 million) to provide structural, mechanical and piping construction work for all outside battery limits modules and associated units for the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project at Ashburton North in Western Australia.

“CB&I is proud of its 75-year history in Australia, where we have an excellent safety performance and a successful LNG track record,” said Patrick K. Mullen, President of CB&I’s Engineering, Construction and Maintenance operating group. “This award builds on CB&I’s involvement in many of the major LNG and other oil and gas projects in this important region of the world.”

The name Wheatstone comes from the Wheatstone Channel in the Montebello Islands, an archipelago of 174 small islands 130km off the Pilbara coast. The Montebello Islands are about 25km north of Barrow Island and 95km south of the Wheatstone gas field.

In late 2011, Chevron Australia began construction of the $29 billion Wheatstone Project, located 12 kilometres west of Onslow on the Pilbara coast of Western Australia.

Eighty percent of the Wheatstone Project’s foundation capacity will be fed with natural gas from the Wheatstone and Iago field operations, which are operated by Chevron (80.17%) in joint venture with Australian
subsidiaries of Shell (8%) and Kyushu Electric Power Company (1.83%) together with PE Wheatstone Pty Ltd (10%). The remaining 20 percent of gas will be supplied from the Apache and KUFPEC Julimar and Brunello fields.