Located 12km west of Onslow in Western Australia, the Wheatstone LNG project is expected to emit up to 10.4 million tons of CO2 annually once fully operational. The project was commissioned in October 2017.
Western Australia Environment Minister Stephen Dawson has requested the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to undertake an annual greenhouse gas emissions review at the Chevron’s Wheatstone project.
The LNG project was originally approved by the former Barnett government in 2011 but with conditions that firm must contribute $13m in environmental offsets and carbon offsets of about 2.6 million tons annually of reservoir carbon dioxide emissions, Australian Associated Press reported.
However, in 2013, Chevron objected that any state conditions would be over-ruled if Commonwealth implements greenhouse gas arrangements. As a result carbon offset was waived in the same year.
Chevron spokeswoman was quoted by Reuters as saying: “Chevron is disappointed by the WA government’s recent direction to the EPA regarding the ministerial conditions, given emissions from the Wheatstone project are regulated by the Australian government’s safeguard mechanism.”
Chevron owns 64.14% stake in the Wheatstone LNG facility while other partners include Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) with 13.4%, Woodside Petroleum 13%, Kyushu Electric Power Company 1.46%, and PE Wheatstone, part owned by JERA, owns 8%.
The Wheatstone Project, which created more than 7,000 jobs during construction, comprises two train LNG facilities.
Expected to contribute around 6% of the Asia Pacific region’s total future LNG production, the project will have capacity to export 8.9 MTPA of LNG.
Image: Officials from Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and KUFPEC at the Wheatstone LNG project, Australia. Photo: courtesy of Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company.
