US oil giant Chevron Corp said Monday it plans to develop its second multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia. The project centres on Chevron's wholly-owned Wheatstone natural gas discovery, off the coast of Karratha.
The facility will tap an estimated 4.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources located within the two Chevron-operated permits that include Wheatstone. Chevron is simultaneously developing its Barrow Island-based Gorgon LNG project, also offshore from Karratha, which has been estimated to cost as much as 20 billion dollars (18.5 billion US) to develop. Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski said the company would develop Wheatstone and Gorgon as independent projects.
"We have enough gas resources in WA to underpin two Chevron-operated LNG plants," he said. "Wheatstone will not change our sense of urgency in moving the Gorgon project forward. We'll move both projects forward without delay." Work on the second facility, which will have initial capacity of at least one five million-ton-per-annum LNG production train, is expected to start in 2009.