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Chevron temporarily shuts Wheatstone

unit on operational issue

PERFORMANCE CHEVRON has temporarily shut down a unit tankers, while some is also processed in a plant
that separates natural gas from associated liquids designed to serve the domestic market. The
at its Wheatstone processing platform offshore LNG trains have a combined capacity of 8.9mn
Western Australia. The shutdown was initiated tonnes per year (tpy).
after an “anomaly” within a nozzle on an inlet The outage at the offshore unit comes as a
separator vessel was found during routine main- further illustration of the technical challenges of
tenance inspections, a Chevron spokesman told operating LNG mega-projects, as Chevron con-
Reuters on December 8. tinues to tackle separate issues at its Gorgon LNG
“The unit, which separates gas and liquids, facility, also in Western Australia.
has been shut down as a precaution while addi- The super-major only restarted Train 2 at
tional assessments are undertaken,” the spokes- Gorgon in late November after keeping the train
man was quoted by Reuters as saying. Chevron offline for several months to address weld qual-
did not provide a timeline for when the unit ity issues that it had discovered on propane heat
would be returned to service, but noted that all exchangers – or kettles – during routine mainte-
processing trains at the Wheatstone onshore gas nance. It will now take Trains 1 and 3 offline, one
facility remained operational and that it contin- after the other, to inspect their kettles for simi-
ued to deliver gas to its customers. lar weld quality issues and make any necessary
The offshore Wheatstone facilities gather repairs.
and partially process gas and associated con- The issue at Wheatstone is far less serious,
densate from the Wheatstone, Iago, Julimar having not resulted in any outages at the lique-
and Brunello gas fields, and deliver it onshore faction plant, but nonetheless poses an addi-
via trunkline for further processing. Onshore, tional headache for Chevron as it works to have
the majority of the gas is processed by two liq- all of its Australian LNG-related infrastructure
uefaction trains before being exported on LNG operating smoothly.™

NEWS IN BRIEF

AMERICAS performance. This offering to our shipping “The success story of US LNG continues to
customers will keep HOPA at the forefront,” be written, and these extended authorisations
HOPA & REV LNG usher in said Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority CEO will ensure that the benefits from these
Ian Hamilton. “We look forward to continuing exports continue for decades to come,” said
LNG bunkering at Port of to find new ways to support improving US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. “The
air quality, reducing GHGs, and working
United States just set a new all-time high
Hamilton, a first on the collaboratively with Canadian and US marine record for LNG exports in November 2020,
and the monthly rate of LNG exports has now
and energy sector partners to help accelerate
Great Lakes the adoption of LNG, and spur further fuel quintupled since the beginning of the Trump
innovations. It also aligns with HOPA’s goal to
Administration.”
Yesterday, for the first time ever on the Great be carbon neutral by 2025.” The term extensions issued today extended
Lakes, a marine vessel refueled with liquefied HOPA PORTS, December 10, 2020 terms for the Golden Pass facility currently
natural gas (LNG). Carrying a load of asphalt, under construction in Sabine Pass, Texas, as
the MV Damia Desgagnés docked at the Department of Energy well as the Texas LNG project proposed for
Port of Hamilton’s Pier 22 to refuel before Brownsville, Texas, the proposed Magnolia
departing for Detroit. As a result of a new extends third set of LNG and Driftwood projects in Louisiana, and
partnership between the Hamilton-Oshawa the Delfin LNG export project proposed for
Port Authority and REV LNG, marine vessels export authorisations offshore Louisiana. Today’s approvals also
will now be able to refuel with liquefied include an extended export term for Sempra
natural gas during any stopover at Hamilton through 2050 Energy’s Costa Azul project in Mexico.
Port. This is a major milestone in the energy Costa Azul, which recently reached a final
evolution of the Great Lakes marine shipping Today, the US Department of Energy investment decision for its mid-scale project,
industry, which is looking for new ways to (DoE) extended the terms of seven long- has DoE authorisation to import and liquefy
reduce GHGs and advance environmental term liquefied natural gas (LNG) export US-sourced natural gas for export from
goals. authorizations through 2050. Today’s actions Mexico.
“As a founding member of the Green follow 10 LNG export term extensions issued “Critical to our Nation’s energy
Marine programme, we are always looking for in October pursuant to an export term policy independence are the prospects presented
new ways to support improved environmental statement DoE finalised in July. by these long-term LNG export extensions,”

Week 49 11•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17