Gorgon Project Overview – Producing Liquefied Natural Gas in Australia

Gorgon Project Overview

The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is one of the world’s largest natural gas projects and the largest single resource development in Australia’s history.

The Gorgon gas project is a natural gas project in Western Australia, involving the development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, subsea gas-gathering infrastructure, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island. It includes a three-train, 15.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to provide 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western Australia.

Project Participants

The Gorgon Project is operated by Chevron Australia Pty Ltd (Chevron Australia), an Australian subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, and is owned by a joint venture comprising Chevron Australia (approximately 47.3 per cent) and Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil (25 per cent), Shell (25 per cent), Osaka Gas (1.25 per cent), Tokyo Gas (one per cent) and Chubu Electric Company (0.417 per cent).

Location

‘Greater Gorgon’ refers to a grouping of several gas fields, including Gorgon, Chandon, Geryon, Orthrus, Maenad, Eurytion, Urania, Chrysaor, Dionysus, Jansz/Io, and West Tryal Rocks, situated in the Barrow sub-basin of the Carnarvon Basin) The Gorgon field is centered about 130 kilometres (81 mi) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, where the water depth is approximately 200 metres (660 ft). Other fields in the group lie to the north, such as Jansz-Io, which covers an area of 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi), in a water depth of 1,300 metres (4,300 ft).

Scope

• 300 ha of land has been acquired on Barrow Island
• 3×5 MTPA LNG Trains
• 15 million tonnes of LNG per year
• 300 terajoules per day domestic gas plant
• Ground breaking occurred on 1 December 2009
• First LNG in 2014
• Production ends between 2054–2074

Using initially 18 wells, gas will be delivered via subsea gathering systems and pipelines to the north-west coast of Barrow Island, then via an underground pipeline system to gas treatment and liquefaction facilities on the island’s south-east coast. The plant will consist of 3 liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains, each capable of producing a nominal capacity of five million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Carbon dioxide (CO₂), which comprises around 15% of the raw gas stream, will be stripped out then injected into formations deep below the island. This forms a very large carbon capture and storage project, with 3.4 to 4 million tonnes of CO₂ planned to be stored each year.

LNG and condensate, initially stored in onshore tanks, will be offloaded from a 2100m jetty onto LNG carriers and oil tankers, for delivery to overseas customers.Natural gas for domestic use will be exported by a 70 km subsea pipeline to the mainland, for transmission to local customers.

Investment

On the total investment of the Gorgon LNG project, media articles have reported analyst forecasts of estimated costs ranging from A$11 billion (in 2003), A$16 billion (2007),and A$50bn in March 2009  to A$43b in Sept 2009.

Environmental Stewardship

Barrow Island has been a Class A Nature Reserve since 1910. The Gorgon Project is being undertaken in accordance with strict environmental standards to preserve the island’s ecology.

Central to the Gorgon Project’s commitment to protect the conservation values of Barrow Island is the Quarantine Management System (QMS), which directs the Project’s quarantine operations. The QMS is the largest non-government quarantine initiative in the world and was considered to be “likely world’s best practice” by the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority.

The Project’s gas processing facilities are being constructed within a 300 hectare ground disturbance limit, which represents 1.3 percent of Barrow Island’s uncleared land area.

Local Benefits

The Gorgon Project will be an important pillar of the Australian economy for decades to come. Already the Project has:

• Committed more than $20 billion to Australian goods and services, with approximately 90 percent of this flowing to Western Australia.
• Generated more than 10,000 jobs in Australia through the Gorgon Project and its contractors, this includes around 6,000 people working on and around Barrow Island.

For more information, please read Gorgon Project Fact Sheet or visit www.chevronaustralia.com/ourbusiness/gorgon

Video-1: “Gorgon Project Overview – Producing Liquefied Natural Gas in Australia”

Uploaded on Feb 23, 2011

See a flythrough animation of The Gorgon Project, which will develop the Greater Gorgon gas fields. Chevron, which will operate the project, and its joint venture participants, ExxonMobil and Shell, will produce LNG and domestic gas on Barrow Island for our customers in Australia and around the world. Find out how the project will work.

For more information, visit www.chevronaustralia.com.

• Category :  Science & Technology

• License : Standard YouTube License

Video-2: “Chevron’s Gorgon Project Advances”

Uploaded in YouTube by Chevron on 14 Mar 2012.

For more about Gorgon, visit http://www.chevronaustralia.com/ourbu….

See the latest developments at Gorgon Natural Gas Project offshore Western Australia.

• Category : Science & Technology

• License : Standard YouTube License

Video-3: “Gorgon Project: September 2013 Update”

Published by Chevron in Youtube on Nov  8, 2013

Construction continues on the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project in Western Australia. This video shows some of the work that is taking place on and around Barrow Island, a Class A Nature Reserve and home to the project.

• Category       : News & Politics

• License : Standard YouTube License

Video-4: “Gorgon Project Update – July 2014”

Published by Chevron in Youtube on Aug 8, 2014

For more information see: http://www.chevronaustralia.com/our-b…

Video-5: ” Gorgon Project Update – October 2014 “

Published by Chevron in Youtube on Dec 5, 2014

Picture & Video Courtesy of : Chevron

References:

• Gorgon Project Fact Sheet- May 2013(http://www.chevronaustralia.com/Libraries/Chevron_Documents/Gorgon_Project_Overview.pdf.sflb.ashx)
• Gorgon Project Update – march 2013 (http://www.chevronaustralia.com/Libraries/Chevron_Documents/Gorgon_Project_Update_Issue_32.pdf.sflb.ashx)
• Official recruitment site for the Gorgon Project (http://www.gorgonjobs.kjv.com.au/)
• Video – Gorgon Project: September 2013 Update (http://www.lngglobal.com/latest/video-gorgon-project-september-2013-update.html)
• Gorgon gas project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon_gas_project)