The Gorgon gas project is a proposed petroleum project in Western Australia, involving the development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, subsea gas-gathering infrastructure, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island. If it proceeds on schedule, it will become Australia's third LNG export development.

Location

'Greater Gorgon' refers to a grouping 'Greater Gorgon' refers to a grouping of several gas fields, including Gorgon, Chandon, Geryon, Orthrus, Maenad, Eurytion, Urania, Chrysaor, Dionysus, Jansz/Io, and West Tryal Rocks, situated in the Barrow sub-basin of the Carnarvon Basin) - an area commonly referred to as the North West Shelf. The Gorgon field is centered about 130 kilometres (81 mi) off the north-west coast of Western Australia, where the water depth is approximately 200 metres (660 ft). Other fields in the group lie to the north, such as Jansz-Io, which covers an area of 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi), in a water depth of 1,300 metres (4,300 ft). Barrow Island lies off the Pilbara coast, 85 kilometres (53 mi) north-north-east of Onslow and 140 kilometres (90 mi) west of Karratha. The largest of a group of islands which include the Montebello and Lowendal Islands, it is 25 kilometres (16 mi) long and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide, covering 235 square kilometres (91 sq mi).

History

More than 200 exploration wells have been drilled in the Barrow sub-basin over the past 35 years, including West Tryal Rocks in 1972, and Spar in 1976 - both discovered by West Australian Petroleum (WAPET) which had been a pioneering company in the development of the Western Australian petroleum industry. WAPET was the operator on behalf of various joint ventures comprising Chevron, Texaco, Shell and Ampolex (the exploration division of Ampol). Chevron and Texaco merged in 2001, Mobil took over Ampolex, and later merged with Exxon to form Exxon-Mobil. In 2000, Chevron became the operator of all WAPET's petroleum assets. WAPET discovered Gorgon in 1981 with the drilling of the Gorgon 1 well. Later discoveries included Chrysaor (1994) and Dionysus (1996). The Jansz-Io gas accumulation, discovered in January 2000, contains an estimated 566 billion cubic meters of recoverable reserves. The project received preliminary environmental approvals from the West Australian government in September 2007 and from the Federal Minister for the Environment in the following month. The project developers then submitted revised plans to cover an expansion in the size of the project. Final environmental approval was received from the state government on 11 August 2009. On 26 August 2009, the Federal Environment Minister announced that the expanded project on Barrow Island had been given conditional environmental approval.

Gorgon Gas Fields

The gas fields, 200 km from the coast are said to contain 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and may have a lifespan of 60 years. The gas is worth A$500 billion at current market prices. With natural gas prices at a relatively low level by historical standards it is assumed that the market value of the natural gas will appreciate over time.