Carnarvon basin smiles at Chevron for LNG expansion
On September 2012, Chevron Corporation (Chevron) made a new gas find in the Greater Gorgon Area offshore Australia.
Exploring the WA-374-P block of the prolific Carnarvon basin, Chevron performed the exploratory well Satyr-2 about 120 kilometers northwest of the Barrow island, offshore the Western Australia coast.
The interests in the WA-374-P block are shared between:
– Chevron 50%, is the operator
– ExxonMobil 25%
– Shell 25%
Pioneering the oil and gas exploration and production in Australia, Chevron drilled the first successful well in the Carnarvon basin in the 1950s.
Since then, Chevron sustained its exploration efforts in Australia through joint venture with Woodside and Shell in the North West Shelf Venture.
But Chevron made its first natural gas discovery in the deep water of the Greater Gorgon Area in 1973 at the north west of Barrow Island with the West Tryal Rocks gas field.
In the 1980, Chevron discovered Gorgon and continued exploration campaign until 2000 to decide the best location for the first onshore gas facilities.
Running into operations in Barrow Island in 2003, Chevron initiated the first expansion of Gorgon LNG in 2008 to reach a capacity of 15 million t/y with three LNG trains.
Chevron made the final investment decision (FID) on Gorgon LNG in 2009.
Since then, Satyr-2 discovery comes at the end of a series of 15 discoveries to feed the three LNG trains of Gorgon LNG.
Drilled in 1100 meters water depth and 3,800 meter depth in total, Satyr-2 shows a net gas pay of 39 meters.
With this discovery Chevron may consider to proceed with the fourth LNG trains in Gorgon LNG.
In the race to Asia markets with the other LNG projects in Australia, Indonesia or even east coast Africa, Chevron sees in Satyr-2 discovery the opportunity to maintain its market leadership in the region.
In addition the Satyr-2 finds gives Chevron valuable learnings on the Carnarvon basin for further exploration and development.
Chevron optimizes its offshore Carnarvon basin assets with onshore Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG capacities
Last August, Chevron and Shell agreed on a swap of interests in the Carnarvon basin between assets located in the Browse area and blocks in the Clio and Acme fields.
According to this exchange agreement:
– Chevron will give its 16.7 shares in East Browse and 20% share in West Browse
– Shell will exchange its 33.3% interests in WA-205-P and WA-42-R blocks with an additional cash payment of $450 million.
As a result Chevron will become single owner of the WA-205-P and WA-42-R blocks with 100% shares.
The WA-205-P and WA-42-R blocks are to feed Wheatstone, the other giant Chevron LNG project in Western Australia.
With this exchange of assets, Chevron optimizes its offshore exploration and production efforts with a balanced development of the Carnarvon basin to fit with Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG onshore facilities expansion program.
For decades, Chevron invested consistent capital expenditure in Australia accumulating a unique experience of its offshore oil and gas fields.
The developments of the giant Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects are at the scale of the demand for natural gas in Asia calling Chevron for continuous expansion based on the sustainable resources of the Carnarvon Basin and the optimized asset management between offshore and onshore LNG trains capacities.
