THE OFFSHORE oil and gas services sector can look forward to increased activity with Chevron Australia and partners committing to the Gorgon Stage 3 development off the north-west of Western Australia.
The Gorgon Joint Venture Participants — which comprise Chevron (47.33%), ExxonMobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), MidOcean (1%) and JERA (0.417%) — announced Friday [5 December] they’d taken a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the $3 billion backfill development, which will connect the offshore Geryon and Eurytion natural gas fields in the Greater Gorgon Area to Gorgon’s existing subsea gas gathering infrastructure and processing facilities on Barrow Island.
Chevron Australia president Balaji Krishnamurthy said the development would maintain production at Gorgon, enabling the long-term supply of domestic gas for WA households and industry, and LNG for international customers in Asia.
“Gorgon is a world-class energy asset which plays a crucial role in supporting the economic development and energy security of millions of people in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region,” Mr Krishnamurthy said.
“With the development of the Geryon and Eurytion fields — to join the existing Gorgon and Jansz-Io fields in providing gas supply for the processing facilities — we can continue providing the reliable energy the world needs, maintaining thousands of highly skilled jobs in Australia, supporting regional WA communities and contributing to government revenue.”
Part of the original development plan for Gorgon, Gorgon Stage 3 is the first in a series of planned subsea tiebacks. The development involves the installation of three manifolds and a 35-kilometre production flowline among other associated infrastructure. Six wells will be drilled in the two fields located about 100 kilometres northwest of Barrow Island in water depths of about 1,300 metres.
“Gorgon Stage 3 is a cost-competitive development which will optimise existing infrastructure and complement the well-progressed Jansz-Io Compression Project and previously completed Gorgon Stage 2 infill development,” Mr Krishnamurthy said.
Gorgon has the capacity to produce 300 terajoules per day of gas for the WA market and 15.6 million tonnes of LNG per year. Stage 3 does not add to total capacity but replaces existing production as it exhaust supplies.