(March 29): Storm damage to Chevron Corp’s Wheatstone gas plant in Australia is hampering efforts to restart operations, heaping further pressure on the global LNG market.
Tropical Cyclone Narelle disrupted production from liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities along Australia’s northern and western coasts during the past week. LNG supply is already under severe strain from the war in the Middle East, with the critical Strait of Hormuz effectively shut and a giant Qatari export plant knocked offline earlier this month.
“The Wheatstone gas facility near Onslow has had equipment damage from the severe weather, which has impacted restart activities,” Chevron said in a statement. It will be a “number of weeks” before the site returns to full production, the company said.
Chevron said earlier in the week that one of three LNG production units at its Gorgon plant was halted, as well as a platform that feeds Wheatstone. On Sunday, it said the Gorgon facility was operating at “full rates”.
The storm also hit infrastructure feeding Woodside Energy Group Ltd’s North West Shelf export plant. Gorgon, Wheatstone and North West Shelf accounted for almost half of Australia’s exports last month, or about 8.4% of the global trade, according to researcher EnergyQuest.
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