Chevron sells Wheatstone merits

Chevron has continued to sell its Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project as a standalone operation with the launch today of 'The Wheatstone Imperative'.

In an address to delegates at a Darwin oil and gas conference today, Wheatstone project general manager Geoff Strong said the project provides opportunities not just for Chevron, but also for third parties.

"Our site can be easily expanded to handle much more Chevron and third party gas," Mr Strong said.

"We do not intend to seek an unfair advantage with this strategic and well-located facility.

"Indeed, Chevron is offering fair and reasonable terms for third-party resource holders who want to produce their gas through Wheatstone.

"We believe that this approach will position Chevron as a partner of choice by offering a lower economic hurdle for other gas discoveries in the West Carnarvon Basin, and ultimately reduce Chevron's share of costs through scale."

He added that development of Wheatstone will create around 3,000 direct jobs during construction, generate billions of dollars in government revenue and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing the burning of coal for electricity generation.

"In several ways, we can't afford not to do this particular project. It has implications and impacts that reach far beyond Chevron.

"It's something that we have started to call The Wheatstone Imperative."

The comments come as both Chevron and Woodside Petroleum sell the merits of their major LNG projects in the northwest of Western Australia.

Woodside is urging the federal government not to renew Chevron's Wheatstone and nearby Iago leases under its 'use it or lose it' policy, and is looking to use the gas from the fields to help underpin its expansion plans for the Pluto LNG project.

Chevron plans to initially produce over 8 million tonnes of LNG per year or 200 terajoules per day of domestic gas at Wheatstone.

The oil and gas major plans to develop Wheatstone in parallel with its $50 billion Gorgon LNG project, with synergies expected to be captured in project management and purchasing power.