Chevron has suspended liquefied natural gas production at its Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in Western Australia due to disruptions caused by Tropical Cyclone Narelle. This contributes to a broader reduction in Australia's LNG output, coinciding with shutdowns at several Middle East liquefaction projects due to the Middle East war, which has caused LNG spot prices in Asia to double over the past four weeks.

Production Outages at Chevron Facilities

Chevron confirmed production outages at its Gorgon (15.6 million tonnes per annum) and Wheatstone (8.9 million tpa) LNG projects. The outage at the offshore Wheatstone platform occurred on March 26, leading to the suspension of LNG and domestic gas production at the onshore facilities, as the platform supplies their feed gas. Personnel had been demobilised from the platform ahead of the cyclone, with operations being conducted remotely from Perth. At the Gorgon facility on Barrow Island, an outage affected one of its three 5.2 million tpa liquefaction trains, while the remaining two trains and the domestic gas facility continued to operate.

Cause and Impact of the Cyclone

Chevron stated that severe weather from Tropical Cyclone Narelle likely caused the operational interruptions at both projects. The cyclone passed 30 kilometres west of Exmouth, Western Australia, as a Category 4 system, causing significant damage, including roofs being ripped off homes. It was described by a long-term resident as the worst and most scary storm experienced. Although Narelle was downgraded to a Category 2 system by Saturday, restarting LNG production at the impacted facilities will not be immediate.

Broader Context of Australian LNG Disruptions

The cyclone also caused operational suspensions at other major Australian LNG projects, including Santos' Darwin LNG and the Woodside Energy-operated North West Shelf project. These widespread suspensions are occurring within an Australian LNG sector that has a total nameplate capacity of around 88 million tonnes.