PERTH (miningweekly.com) – US-based energy major Chevron has signed a long-term sales and purchase agreement with Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power Company for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Wheatstone project, in Western Australia.
Under the agreement, Chevron and its joint venture (JV) partners in the project would supply Tohoku with 0.9-million tonnes a year of LNG for up to 20 years.
“These agreements with Tohoku create a new partnership between our companies and demonstrate the benefits of buyers and sellers working together to ensure supply is brought to the market to meet growing LNG demand,” said Chevron’s gas and midstream president, Joe Geagea.
Chevron Australia MD Roy Krzywosinski welcomed the agreements with Tohoku, saying it meant that 85% of Chevron's equity LNG from Wheatstone was now committed to customers in Asia on a long-term basis.
“These agreements, combined with our ongoing exploration success, demonstrate that our Wheatstone and Gorgon projects in Australia are well-placed to meet the growing demand for natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Wheatstone is located 12 km west of Onslow and would consist of two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9-million tonnes a year, along with a domestic gas plant.
The Wheatstone project is a JV between Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, Apache Energy, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, Shell, and Kyushu Electric Power Company, as well as PE Wheatstone.
Chevron also holds an 80.17% equity interest in the Wheatstone and Iago fields that provide 80% of the feed gas to the Wheatstone project.