Chevron's Wheatstone Field Closer to Commercialization

In a recent press release, Chevron Corporation announced the award of a major front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the first phase of their Wheatstone Field natural gas development in northwest Australia. This part of the project involves two liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing trains with a capacity of around 4.3 million tons per year each as well as a domestic gas plant. The project has been awarded to Bechtel Oil, Gas & Chemicals, Inc.

The facility, to be located at Ashburton North on the mainland of Western Australia, will be supplied initially from Chevron's 100 percent interest in the Wheatstone Field and the Chevron-operated Iago Field.

This announcement means that the project can take a big step forward. "Awarding the contract moves the Wheatstone project a step closer to commercialization, assists in realizing our strategy of developing our large natural-gas resource base in Australia and further enhances our position as a leading supplier of LNG in the Asia-Pacific region and internationally," said George Kirkland, executive vice president, Global Upstream and Gas, Chevron Corporation. "We are committed to moving forward our two big Australian LNG projects — Wheatstone and the Gorgon development.”

Chevron's Wheatstone Field was discovered in 2004 in water depths of around 650 feet (200 m). It is adjacent to the wholly Chevron Australia owned Iago Field, which was discovered in 2000 and spans two retention points.

These two fields together hold enough natural gas to supply the two-train LNG development. The Company plans to make final investment decisions about the Wheatstone project in 2011.