(EnergyAsia, December 8 2011, Thursday) — Chevron Australia Pty Ltd and its joint venture participants have started work on their A$29 billion Wheatstone natural gas project with a groundbreaking ceremony at Ashburton North near Onslow on Western Australia’s Pilbara coast. (US$1=A$0.98).

As one of Australia’s largest project developments, Wheastone comprises two liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million tonnes a year and a domestic gas plant when construction is completed by 2016.

The company said it expects more than 6,500 direct and indirect jobs to be created at peak construction, resulting in more than A$17 billion being spent on local goods and services.

Senior executives from the project partners Chevron, Apache, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) and Shell were joined at the ceremony by the Western Australian Premier, Colin Barnett and other officials and guests.

The Western Australian government said that Wheatstone along with Chevron’s other major project, Gorgon, has accounted for A$72 billion worth of new investment in the LNG industry in this state.

Mr Barnett said: “Wheatstone represents part of a major step forward in the operations and scale of Western Australia’s LNG industry.

“This project together with the LNG projects currently under construction and the existing North West Shelf operations will boost Western Australia’s LNG production from 17-million tons a year to 45-million tons a year within the next few years.

“This will also position Western Australia as the world’s second-biggest supplier of LNG and well on the way to increasing the state’s LNG production to more than 60-million tons a year by 2020.”

George Kirkland, vice chairman of Chevron Corp, said:

“We’re constructing a facility that will benefit generations.  Like Gorgon, it will produce energy by redefining what technically complex, environmentally-responsible projects look like in the 21st century.”

Melody Meyer, president of Chevron Asia Pacific Exploration and Production Company, said:

“Combined with the Gorgon LNG project, this enhances Chevron’s position as a leading supplier of natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Roy Krzywosinski, managing director of Chevron Australia, said:

“Since the Wheatstone Project was sanctioned in September, preliminary site works have started. The accommodation complex, which will house more than 4,300 construction workers, will be one of the first facilities to be built at the site.”

Wheatstone’s project partners include the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (73.6%), Apache (13%), KUFPEC (7%) and Shell (6.4%).

Chevron Australia leads the development of the Gorgon and Wheatstone natural gas projects, manages its equal one-sixth interest in the North West Shelf Venture, and operates the country’s largest onshore oilfield on Barrow Island and the Thevenard Island oilfields.  The US major is also a participant in the Browse LNG development and is a significant investor in exploration offshore northwest Australia.