Woodside Loads Landmark NW Shelf Cargo

Australia's Woodside September 4 said its Karratha gas plant loaded its 5000th LNG cargo, onboard the carrier Northwest Swan headed for Japan.

The Woodside-operated North West Shelf project is a joint venture constituting six major international companies. Woodside as operator, plus Shell, BHP, BP and Chevron each have one-sixth equity, while Japan's Mitsubishi and Mitsui each have one-twelfth equity stakes. NW Shelf has nominal liquefaction capacity of 16.3mn mt/yr. Trains 1 & 2 opened 1989, followed by T3 in 1992, T4 in 2004 and T5 2008.

Woodside said that "North West Shelf has been safely and reliably delivering LNG to international markets for almost 30 years."  It has a diverse list of long-term mostly Japanese customers, most of whose contracts expire in the mid- to late-2020s; however a couple of smaller volume contracts (one to Jera for 0.5mn mt/yr and another to Toho Gas for 0.76mn mt/yr) are scheduled to expire in 2019.

In 2017, the NWS participants issued a non-binding tolling proposal to third-party resource owners for processing gas through the Karratha gas plant. Feasibility studies are expected to continue during 2018.

Crew aboard the Northwest Swan celebrate the loading of NW Shelf's 5,000th cargo, September 4 2018 (Photo credit: Woodside)