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John S. Watson Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer |
Thank you, Nigel, and thank you to Premier McGowan for taking the time to be here.
I also want to respectfully acknowledge the Thalanyji people, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Finally, I’m pleased to see the former premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, with us today. His support has been critical to the success of this project.
It’s great to be back in Australia to share this significant milestone with our valued partners.
The startup of Train 1 and the sail-away of the first cargo from Wheatstone mark the culmination of more than six years of hard work by thousands of people.
This project could not have been brought on line without the support of our joint-venture participants and the backing of the Australian local, state and federal governments, the community of Onslow, and our valued customers.
Delivering Wheatstone is a historic achievement.
This commemoration marks our success in bringing Australia one step closer to becoming the leading global LNG [liquefied natural gas] producer.
It reinforces Chevron’s position as a top natural gas supplier and LNG operator in the Asia-Pacific region.1
And it represents the development of a major new source of reliable domestic gas to Western Australia (WA), with the capacity to produce 200 terajoules per day for the local market.2
That, combined with domestic gas from the Chevron-operated Gorgon project, gives us the capacity to produce 500 terajoules per day – 50 percent of WA’s current domestic gas supply.
We now have Australia’s first third-party natural gas hub, enabling future development of Western Australia’s vast offshore natural gas resources.
- The Wheatstone platform is one of the largest offshore gas-processing platforms ever installed in Australia and saw the largest float-over installation Chevron had ever delivered.
- Natural gas is carried from the platform to the onshore plant site in 225 km of pipe.
Beyond accomplishing those engineering feats, Wheatstone is a symbol of Chevron’s commitment to the Australian nation – a commitment that began more than 60 years ago and has only grown over time.
This latest symbol of our partnership brings greater security of supply to Australia and the region and considerable economic benefits: employment, government revenue, the support of local goods and services, and infrastructure investments, including the airport runway we came in on.3
This is something we can all be proud of.
Thank you for making the time to join us here today and to everyone who helped bring this project to life.
I look forward to celebrating our accomplishment.
1. At full capacity, Wheatstone is expected to contribute approximately 6 percent of the Asia Pacific’s total future LNG production.
2. Wheatstone has the capacity to produce 200 terajoules per day for the local market.
3. Wheatstone has seen more than $20 billion spent on local goods and services through 300 different Australian companies since 2009.