Pluto to Open Truck Loading Facility This Month

Woodside will officially open an LNG truck-loading facility at the Pluto facility later this month, COO Meg O’Neill told the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition & Conference March 13.

The trucks will supply LNG to customers and communities in remote areas across northern Western Australia not connected to the grid. This development points to Woodside’s focus on domestic market. Recently, Pluto LNG project, operated by Woodside, supplied its first gas to the Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline with successful commissioning of the Pluto pipeline gas facility.

O’Neill said Woodside has also been working to develop the potential for LNG as a cleaner marine fuel and the company believes Western Australia can lead the way in this emerging market as the International Maritime Organisation’s 2020 deadline for low-sulphur marine fuel approaches.

“Woodside has been talking to the big miners about using LNG to fuel the busy marine trade routes from Western Australia to Asia and we are tendering for a bunkering vessel to ensure the ships can be readily refuelled in Western Australia, using Western Australian LNG,” O’Neill said.