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Ups and downs for

LNG in Australia

Chevron has reported finding weld quality issues at a second train at its Gorgon LNG project,
while Shell has restarted production at Prelude FLNG after an almost year-long outage

COMMENTARY LNG-RELATED news from Australia has been The faulty welds were found on propane heat
mixed in recent days. While Chevron is dealing exchangers – also known as kettles – that are
with more issues and repairs at Gorgon LNG used in the liquefaction process. The Australian
WHAT: in Western Australia, Royal Dutch Shell has Financial Review reported that all of the kettles
Shell and Chevron have returned its giant Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) across Gorgon’s three trains were manufactured
reported good and bad project to service. Prelude had been offline for by the same company in South Korea.
news respectively from around a year. Chevron first discovered the weld quality
their Australian LNG Both developments illustrate the complexity issues on Train 2 during scheduled maintenance
projects. of LNG megaprojects. In addition, the ongoing in July 2020. The super-major was initially aim-
outage at Gorgon is thought to be contributing ing to return the train to service in September,
WHY: to the spike in Asian LNG spot prices as buyers but repairs took longer than expected and it
Chevron found weld contend with higher-than-expected demand came back online in November.
quality issues at a second and certain supply bottlenecks. Upon returning Train 2 to service, Chevron
train at Gorgon LNG, shut down Train 1 to inspect its kettles for similar
while Shell has restarted Weld woes issues. The super-major hopes that its experience
Prelude FLNG. Chevron said last week that an inspection of with carrying out repairs on Train 2 will help to
Train 1 at Gorgon LNG, which is located on speed up the process at Train 1 – and also Train
WHAT NEXT: Barrow Island, had resulted in weld quality 3 if necessary.
Outages at Australian issues being identified. These are similar to the This is not the only challenge Chevron is
LNG terminals are weld quality issues that kept Train 2 at Gorgon facing at Gorgon, though. Separately, environ-
contributing to a spike offline for months in 2020, and are likely to mental groups are calling on the plant to be shut
in Asian spot prices for take at least several weeks to repair, though down altogether because of its rising greenhouse
the fuel. Chevron has not confirmed a date for return- gas (GHG) emissions. Chevron has a carbon
ing Train 1 to service. capture and storage (CCS) project operating to
The discovery has raised expectations that support Gorgon, but documents obtained by
Train 3 will also have similar issues that will Western Australian independent energy news
need to be repaired once Train 1 is back online. website Boiling Cold have revealed that the facil-
The third train was already scheduled to be taken ity has not been working as it should.
offline for inspection prior to the issues being Sand is reported to be clogging the injection
identified on Train 1. system, which is designed to bury up to 4mn

Chevron’s Gorgon LNG is located on Barrow Island.
Image: APPEA

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 21•January•2021