finance
Chevron Restarts Wheatstone LNG Production After March Cyclone Repairs
Chevron has resumed liquefied natural gas output at its Wheatstone project in Australia following repairs from severe cyclone damage. The restart comes amid a global LNG supply crunch exacerbated by disruptions in Qatar and other Australian facilities. Asia's LNG imports have fallen to their lowest levels since June 2020.
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Com reported. The company addressed damage from extreme winds that affected several hundred air-cooled heat exchangers, known as fin fans. “Extreme winds associated with the cyclone damaged several hundred air-cooled heat exchangers, known as fin fans, making the repair programme a significant undertaking,” Chevron’s head of operations and maintenance in Australia said in a statement.
The repair program at Chevron's Wheatstone project was a significant undertaking due to the severity of the cyclone damage, according to the same Chevron official. Tropical Cyclone Narelle disrupted operations at three LNG facilities in Australia last month. The three LNG facilities disrupted by Tropical Cyclone Narelle include Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone projects.
Gorgon suspended operations at one of its three liquefaction trains due to Tropical Cyclone Narelle. These disruptions worsened a global LNG supply crunch. LNG supply from Qatar dried up amid Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Strikes on Qatari LNG infrastructure prompted a force majeure declaration on exports. Asia’s imports of LNG plunged to their lowest level since June 2020 over the past month. The 30-day moving average of net shipments of liquefied natural gas to Asia plummeted below 600,000 tons this weekend, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data.
This was the lowest one-month moving average of LNG arrivals into Asia since June 2020, based on Bloomberg data. About a dozen tankers initially bound for Europe diverted to Asia over the past few weeks. About 50 empty LNG tankers are sitting idle across Asia.
