Chevron Says It Will Take Weeks to Restore Gorgon LNG Output

Chevron is repairing a mechanical fault in a turbine at one of the three LNG production trains at its Gorgon LNG facility in Australia, with works expected to take weeks, the local unit of the U.S. supermajor told LNG Prime on Friday.   

The fault at the turbine occurred in the afternoon local time on Tuesday, April 30, the company said on Friday.  

Chevron Australia has already started working to repair the fault, with works expected to “take a number of weeks,” a spokesperson for Chevron Australia told LNG Prime.

“Domestic gas and the remaining two LNG production trains at Gorgon are unaffected and are producing at full rates,” the spokesperson added.

Chevron has notified the parties concerned about the repair works and will keep them posted when production can safely resume at full capacity, the company said. 

Chevron holds 47.3% in the Gorgon Project located on Barrow Island, about 37 miles off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The three LNG trains at Gorgon have a production capacity of 15.6 million metric tons per year.

Last November, one of Gorgon’s LNG trains was working at reduced capacity for a few weeks following an “electrical incident.”

Prior to this incident at Gorgon, a fault at Chevron’s other LNG export facility in Australia, Wheatstone, reduced LNG production at the plant by 25%.  

The fault at the Wheatstone plant in September 2023 coincided with the escalation of strikes at the two Chevron facilities in Australia.

The weeks-long dispute between Chevron and workers at its two LNG projects in Australia finally ended in late October with an agreement that eliminated the risk of further industrial action. Members of the Offshore Alliance—the group that represents the workers—voted in favor of a deal with the supermajor endorsing what Chevron offered in wages and working conditions.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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