Chevron and Partners to Proceed with Gorgon Natural Gas Project; Resources Estimated at 6.7B Barrels Oil Equivalent
14 September 2009
| Map showing an overview of the Gorgon Project. Source: Chevron. Click to enlarge. |
Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, will proceed with the development of the large Gorgon natural gas project offshore Western Australia. Development proposals for the project were approved on 13 Sep by the Western Australian State Premier, and production licenses were granted by the Australian Minister for Resources and Energy.
The Greater Gorgon Area—comprising the Jansz and Gorgon fields—has projected natural gas resources equivalent to 6.7 billion barrels of oil (boe). The Gorgon Project, operated by the Chevron (currently 50%) in joint venture with Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil (25%) and Shell (25%), is currently estimated to cost A$43 billion (US$37 billion) for the first phase of development. First gas is planned for 2014.
| “With a total resource base of more than 40 trillion cubic feet of gas and an estimated economic life of at least 40 years, Gorgon will be a major contributor to our company’s future growth.” —Chevron Chairman Dave O’Reilly |
The project’s scope includes a three-train, 15 million-metric-ton-per-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and a domestic gas plant with capacity of up to 300 TJ on Barrow Island. Domestic gas will be piped to the mainland.
Barrow Island, a nature reserve since 1910, is also home to Australia’s oldest and largest onshore oilfield—operated by Chevron—with more than 1,000 wells. The Gorgon gas processing plant will occupy 300 hectares—1.3% of the island.
| Carbon dioxide injection in the Gorgon project. Source: Chevron. Click to enlarge. |
The project underwent an environmental assessment that resulted in some of the most stringent conditions imposed on a major project yet. The project is expected to have the world’s largest carbon dioxide injection system and be a global leader in underground carbon dioxide injection technology.
CO2 will be removed from the incoming natural gas, compressed, and injected into the Dupuy formation, 2.5 km beneath Barrow Island. Chevron anticipates that project emissions will be reduced by approximately 40% (~3.7 MTPA CO2e).
The Gorgon project will tap the Jansz field, at approximately 1,350 meters of water depth (4,429 feet) and approximately 140 km (87 miles) from Barrow Island. Gorgon will use a sub-sea infrastructure for the production, gathering and transport of reservoir fluids to Barrow Island via more than 180 km of carbon steel deep sea pipelines (and more than 180 km of parallel umbilical and service pipelines).
The Gorgon field, in approximately 250 m of water, is 70 km from Barrow Island. Raw gas from the Gorgon field will flow to Barrow Island, the site of the LNG plant
Chevron’s stake will change from 50% to 47.75% once relevant approvals have been obtained on equity agreements with Osaka Gas and Tokyo Gas. Chevron will supply Osaka Gas 1.375 MTPA of LNG for 25 years. Osaka Gas will purchase 1.25% equity in the Gorgon Project. Tokyo Gas will be supplied 1.1 MTPA over 25 years and will purchase a 1% equity stake. Supply from both agreements is expected to commence in the second half of 2014.
A new abbreviation for me:
mtpa = million tonnes per annum
I noticed that Forbes had an news item a while back related to this. "PetroChina will buy 2.25 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of gas from Exxon's share of gas from the proposed Gorgon LNG project for a period of 20 years.".
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/08/18/afx6789161.html
This is cleaner than coal, another major Australian export, but still a fossil fuel.
Posted by: green01 | 14 September 2009 at 06:25 AM
Australia can use income to offset drought impact.
Concerning petro, recently some articles suggest that oil was formed when the earth began, isn't compressed plant/ animal fossils, and there's plenty left.
What's that about?
Posted by: kelly | 14 September 2009 at 07:45 AM
It's called abiogenic oil. It is mostly an unaccepted theory for the origin of oil and gas. It does have its supporters though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Formation
It is far more likely that the present biologic theory is correct. Just look at coal deposits. They are far more abundant than oil and gas and yet they definitely are biologic in origin.
Similar strata that contain kerogen (the believed precursor for oil) is exposed to the surface in England. This strata, when it goes under the North Sea is the location of the North Sea oil deposits. This exposed strata is also straight off burnable.
There is a tendency to try to negate biologic origins as a decoupling strategy to try to negate things like peak oil or the need to conserve.
Posted by: aym | 14 September 2009 at 04:37 PM
aym,
Thanks, "There is a tendency to try to negate biologic origins as a decoupling strategy to try to negate things like peak oil or the need to conserve." is what is seemed to imply.
Posted by: kelly | 15 September 2009 at 07:38 AM
This article points out something that is rarely mentioned in the press. Natural gas sometimes has CO2 mixed in with it when it comes out of the ground. This CO2 is not contained in the figures for the relative CO2 releases for the various fuels. It may be that burning local coal releases less CO2 than cleaning, pumping and liquifying this natural gas and shipping it by sea. There are known wells that produce mostly CO2 which is used to make dry ice.
CO2 injection enhances the production of oil from existing wells. Put CO2 in and get a lot more of CH out to make more CO2. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 17 September 2009 at 02:21 AM