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Like its peers across the world, the company issues were found on propane heat exchangers,
has been forced to make deep spending cuts in prompting fears that the other trains may also
response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan- be affected.
demic and resulting price collapse. However, the 15.6mn tonne per year (tpy)
Russia’s offshore Arctic zone is thought to Gorgon project will not need to be taken offline
contain many billions of barrels of oil, along with altogether at any point, after Western Australia’s
trillions of cubic metres of gas. But the region’s Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and
remoteness and harsh operational conditions Safety approved Chevron’s plan to stagger the
make development extremely costly. The well shutdown of the trains.
that found Pobeda cost around $700mn, mak- Under this plan, Chevron will shut Train 1 in
ing it the most expensive ever drilled in mod- early October and Train 3 in January 2021 for
ern Russia. There are also doubts about whether inspections and any necessary maintenance. The
Rosneft has the expertise to carry out Arctic off- super-major said Train 2 remained on track to
shore drilling effectively without a foreign part- restart in early September.
ner such as Exxon. According to two Singapore-based LNG
In other news, Gazprom Neft has reported its traders cited by Reuters, Chevron has informed
second-quarter results, with both EBITDA and Gorgon customers that it can supply them from
net income arriving in line with expectations. the Wheatstone and North West Shelf LNG
But investors were disappointed by the compa- plants instead while work on the trains is being
ny’s negative free cash flow (FCF) of $1.1bn. carried out.
Gazprom Neft has also announced the launch In Central America, meanwhile, Sempra
of the next phase of the Novoportovskoye oilfield Energy may be facing additional hurdles as it
in the Arctic – one of its main greenfield projects. attempts to obtain an export permit for its pro-
The company is now drilling for oil at the field’s posed Energia Costa Azul project in Mexico.
northern section, in order to keep output stable. According to an August 21 Reuters report that
Novoportovskoye is expected to flow 160,000 cited sources familiar with the matter, the Mex-
barrels per day (bpd) of crude in 2021. ican government has asked Sempra’s unit in the
country, IEnova, to commit to another facility
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping in the Port of Topolobampo before it grants the
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then permit for Energia Costa Azul.
please click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor . Media have been unable to confirm any
further details, but it is believed that the Ener-
More grief for Gorgon LNG gia Costa Azul, which would be the first export
LNG projects in different parts of the world – permit of its kind for a private company in Mex-
and at different stages of development – have ico, could still be issued promptly. Nonetheless,
suffered setbacks in recent days. the report suggests that the path forward is not
Significantly, Chevron has confirmed spec- entirely straightforward for Sempra.
ulation that it will need to shut Trains 1 and 3
at its Gorgon LNG project in Australia in order If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
to carry out maintenance. This comes as Train the global LNG sector then please click here for
2 remains offline for repairs after weld quality NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.

Week 34 27•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9