Chevron reports gas outage in Australia due to Cyclone

Chevron announced 'on Friday that it is working to restore the production at its Gorgon and Wheatstone liquefied natural gas facilities in Australia, following production outages likely caused by Tropical Cyclone Narelle.

A spokesperson for Chevron Australia said: "We will resume production at both sites once it is safe."

The Wheatstone 'Platform', located about 225km (140miles) off Australia’s west coast at midday local time (0400 GMT), experienced an outage. This caused a suspension in onshore gas production.

The spokesperson stated that "as is customary during significant weather events, all staff were demobilised before the cyclone passed, and the Wheatstone Platform has been operated remotely since Tuesday afternoon from our Perth office."

A three-hour outage at Gorgon's Barrow Island facility, located about 50 km offshore, shut down one of the three LNG production trains.

The suspensions increase pressure on the global LNG market, which was already impacted by the Strait of Hormuz effectively being closed and the fact that Qatar, the world's largest LNG producer, has shut down production this month because of the war against Iran.

The closure of several LNG and iron ore ports in Western Australia has been caused by the Narelle system. Reporting by Renju José and Byron Kaye, Sydney; editing by Himani Sarkar & Chris Reese

(source: Reuters)