XOM - Chevron's Gorgon LNG Plant Restarts Full Operations | Benzinga
Chevron Corporation's (NYSE: CVX) subsidiary Chevron Australia successfully restored full production at Gorgon liquefied natural gas export terminal in Western Australia after a month-long outage. The disruption was caused by a mechanical fault in a turbine, which had since been resolved allowing the affected production train to resume operations.
Throughout the outage, the remaining two production trains and the domestic gas plant continued to operate at full capacity, ensuring ongoing supply and mitigating broader market impacts.
Importance of Gorgon LNG in the Global Market
A Major Player in the LNG Industry: Gorgon LNG, one of the world's largest LNG projects, significantly influences global LNG prices. In the downtime, spot LNG prices rose to approximately $12 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), as reported by S&P Global Platts. This price increase highlighted the facility's critical role in the global LNG supply chain, especially in the Asia-Pacific market, where demand remains strong.
Chevron's Stake and Operational Capacity: CVX operates Gorgon LNG and holds a 47% stake in the joint venture with Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Shell plc (NYSE: SHEL) each holding 25%. The project contains three LNG trains with a combined production capacity of 15.6 million metric tons per year. The full restoration of production at Gorgon LNG highlighted the project's capacity to meet high global demand and stabilize market fluctuations.
Technical Challenges and Operational Resilience
Mechanical Fault and Resolution: The recent outage at Gorgon LNG was due to a mechanical fault in one of the turbines. Chevron's swift and effective response to this issue ensured that the downtime was limited to a month. The successful resolution of this mechanical fault allowed the affected production train ...