Chevron announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Chevron Australia Pty Ltd. (Chevron Australia) as operator and the Gorgon joint venture participants will proceed with the approximately $4-billion (AU$6 billion) Jansz-Io Compression (J-IC) project.

Jansz-Io will be the first gas field outside Norway where the subsea compression technology comes to use. It is located around 200 kilometers off the Australian north-west coast at a water depth of approximately 1,350 meters (4,429 feet).

The J-IC Project objective is to unlock low pressure reserves from the Jansz-Io reservoir and maintain plateau production rates to the Gorgon Project facilities on Barrow Island (BWI).

A modification of the existing Gorgon development, J-IC will involve the construction and installation of a 27,000-tonne normally unattended floating Field Control Station (FCS), approximately 6,500 tonnes of subsea compression infrastructure and a 135km submarine power cable linked to Barrow Island.

Construction and installation activities are estimated to take approximately five years to complete.

Nigel Hearne, Chevron Eurasia Pacific Exploration and Production president, said J-IC represents Chevron’s most significant capital investment in Australia since the sanctioning of the Gorgon Stage 2 project in 2018.

Using world-leading subsea compression technology, J-IC is positioned to maintain gas supply from the Jansz-Io field to the three existing LNG trains and domestic gas plant on Barrow Island. This will maintain an important source of clean-burning natural gas to customers that will enable energy transitions in countries across the Asia Pacific region.

—Nigel Hearne

J-IC follows the Gorgon Stage 2 project, which is nearing completion of the installation phase, to supply gas to the Gorgon plant from four new Jansz-Io and seven new Gorgon wells.

The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.333%), ExxonMobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and JERA (0.417%).