Woodside: Wheatstone start-up imminent

Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy has said that the start-up of the giant Wheatstone gas project in W. Australia is imminent.

The start-up of the giant Chevron-operated LNG development had been planned for year-end 2016, only to be put off for mid-2017 in February 2016.

In its quarterly update on Thursday, Woodside said that the final commissioning of the Wheatstone LNG Train 1 was nearing completion.

Woodside said that the offshore platform hook-up and commissioning required for LNG Train 1 start-up was complete, trunkline pressurised, ready to supply gas onshore.

At the time of the installation in 2015, the Wheatstone Platform was the largest offshore gas processing platform ever installed in Australia, with a topsides weight of about 37,000 metric tons.

The project, labeled as one of Australia’s largest resource projects, will develop the Wheatstone, Iago, Julimar and Brunello offshore gas fields in Australia. The Wheatstone and nearby Iago natural gas resources are located about 200km (124 miles) north of Onslow off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast. The Julimar and Brunello fields will tie back to the central processing platform.

Woodside did not provide an exact date but it said that final commissioning of onshore LNG Train 1 “is well advanced and nearing completion,” and the start-up was “imminent”

LNG Train 2 start-up is expected 6 to 8 months after LNG Train 1 start-up, Woodside said.

Offshore Energy Today Staff