Maiden Gorgon LNG Cargo Heads to Japan

By Aiswarya Lakshmi March 21, 2016

The first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Australian Chevron's monster $55 billion Gorgon Project has departed Barrow Island yesterday aboard the 2015-built LNG carrier Asia Excellence, US-based energy giant Chevron Corporation said.

Chubu Electric Power, one of Chevron's foundation buyers for Gorgon LNG, will receive the cargo.

Chevron, which started producing the fuel on Barrow Island earlier this month, had expected to make the first shipment last week.

“Departure of the first cargo from the Gorgon Project is a key milestone in our commitment to be a reliable LNG provider for customers across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Chevron executive VP for midstream and development Mike Wirth.

The project includes the world’s largest commercial-scale carbon capture and storage initiative, reducing the project’s emissions by around 40%, or 3.6-million tonnes a year, and it also has the largest sub-sea infrastructure ever built, with more than 800 km of pipelines installed.

Western Australian Premier and Minister for State Development, Colin Barnett said on Monday that Gorgon was expected to generate economic benefits for Western Australia over the next few decades.

The Gorgon Project, located off the northwest coast of Western Australia, is supplied from the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields, situated within the Greater Gorgon area, between 130 km and 220 km off the northwest coast of Western Australia.

The Chevron-operated project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power.