New milestone for Chevron’s Australian gas project with 1,000th LNG cargo send-off

Chevron Australia, a subsidiary of the U.S.-headquartered energy giant Chevron, has reached a new achievement at its gas project off the coast of Australia, which is considered to be one of the country’s largest resource developments and its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub.

While disclosing that the 1,000th LNG cargo has been shipped from the Wheatstone project, Chevron confirmed that the Asia Integrity set sail on June 2, 2025, carrying approximately 157,000 cubic meters (bcm) of LNG bound for Mizushima, Japan.

This project is run by a joint venture between Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC), Woodside Energy, and Kyushu Electric Power Company, together with PE Wheatstone, part-owned by JERA.

The operator highlighted: “Since the first cargo was shipped in October 2017, our dedicated Wheatstone team has continued to safely and reliably deliver natural gas to our closest trading partners across the Asia Pacific region. At the same time, they’ve also helped provide the energy that powers Western Australia, supplying around 20 percent of the state’s domestic gas.

“The achievement of the 1000th cargo milestone is a testament to the collective effort and commitment of a talented team over many years, and we thank them for the important role they continue to play in meeting the energy needs of our customers and communities.”

The Wheatstone project, sanctioned in late 2011, encompasses two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), and a domestic gas plant. The project’s onshore facilities are located 12 kilometers west of Onslow on the Pilbara coast of Western Australia.

The offshore processing platform is situated in 70 meters of water, about 225 kilometers from the coast. These facilities gather and partially process gas and associated condensate from the Wheatstone, Iago, Julimar, and Brunello gas fields, and deliver it onshore via trunkline for further processing.

Afterward, most of Wheatstone’s gas is processed by the two LNG trains, where impurities and inert gases are removed, natural gas is chilled to minus 130 degrees Celsius, and further cooled to minus 162 degrees Celsius before being sent to insulated storage tanks to await export overseas via LNG tankers.

While the project produced a daily average of 196,000 barrels of net oil-equivalent and 19,000 barrels of net crude oil in 2024, the net natural gas production averaged 1 million cubic feet per day. Chevron decided to consolidate its focus on the Wheatstone project by agreeing to an asset swap with Woodside in December 2024, under which both parties opted to direct their attention to strategic assets they individually operate in Western Australia.

To make this happen, Chevron Australia struck a deal to transfer its 16.67% non-operated interest in the North West Shelf (NWS) project, NWS oil project, and its 20% non-operated interest in the Angel carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to Woodside in exchange for the latter’s 13% non-operated interest in the Wheatstone project and 65% operated interest in the Julimar-Brunello project.

In addition, the former agreed to make a cash payment to the Australian energy giant of up to $400 million, paid at key milestones and contingent on the execution and handover of the Julimar Phase 3 project. The transaction was subject to several conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals and execution and handover of Julimar’s next chapter.

Chevron is also actively developing its assets elsewhere, as confirmed by the start of production from its deepwater oil and gas project in the Gulf of America, formerly the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.