Chevron: Gorgon Train 1 production at 70 pct

Train 1 at Chevron’s giant Gorgon Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia is currently producing at 70 percent of its capacity after the plant was closed in early July due to a “minor” gas leak.

“At Gorgon we are currently producing at 70 percent of Train 1’s capacity, or approximately 90,000 barrels per day,” Jay Johnson, Executive VP, Upstream at Chevron told analysts on Friday after the U.S.-based energy giant posted a loss of $1.5 billion for second quarter this year. Once in full production, Gorgon’s first liquefaction train will have a capacity of 5.2 million mt/year.

“In early July, we took a short shutdown to address a number of issues and repair a minor leak. Production resumed mid-July, and the plant has been running smoothly since that time,” Johnson said.

U.S.-based Chevron shipped the second ever Gorgon cargo shortly after the gas leak on July 3 aboard the Marib Spirit that loaded with previously stored LNG. However, since then no ships were dispatched from the plant.

Johnson did not provide an update on the expected departure of the third Gorgon cargo.

To remind, LNG World News reported on July 27, citing a shipping schedule posted on the Chevron Australia website, that the 171,800-cbm LNG newbuild Beidou Star, owned by Japanese shipping giant MOL, is expected to load and ship the third Gorgon cargo. The LNG tanker is currently docked at the Gorgon jetty, the shipping schedule shows.

According to Johnson, construction is progressing on Gorgon’s second and third liquefaction train.

“We’re incorporating all the experience gained from Train 1’s construction, completion and initial operations into Train 2 and Train 3.”

Chevron expects first chilled gas from Train 2 “early in the fourth quarter and from Train 3 in the second quarter of 2017.”

“We’ve always said that our expectation is Train 2 and Train 3 would start up at roughly six-month intervals. And we’re pretty much still on that plan,” Johnson said.

As per Chevron’s second LNG project in Australia – Wheatstone, Johnson said that construction work is progressing with the clean up and testing of all nine of development wells completed and the plant’s structural, piping, and cabling work “ahead of the plan.”

“At Wheatstone, our outlook for first LNG remains mid-2017 for Train 1. Train 2 construction work is also progressing per plan, with start-up expected six to eight months after Train 1,” Johnson said.

LNG World News Staff