WESTERN Australia’s domestic gas supplies have been bolstered with the official opening last weekend of the Devil Creek gas plant, located south of Karratha.
The $1.1 billion development is the state’s third domestic gas plant, and the first new plant built in WA in 15 years.
Jointly developed by US company Apache Energy (55 per cent) and Santos (45 per cent), Devil Creek will produce up to 220 terajoules of gas per day, equal to about 20 per cent of current demand, when it reaches full capacity.
It adds to the Karratha gas plant (part of the Woodside-operated North West Shelf project) and the Varanus Island gas hub (also operated by Apache).
Further domestic gas supplies are due to come from BHP Billiton’s $US1.5 billion Macedon development, currently underway near Onslow.
In addition, export-focused LNG projects such as Gorgon and Wheatstone will process a component of their gas reserves for the domestic market.
However the timing and pricing of these gas supplies is yet to be precisely determined.
The Devil Creek plant processes gas piped from Santos’ offshore Reindeer field in the Carnarvon Basin.
The gas is then fed into the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline and supplied to WA’s major gas users.
Santos said it had struck four sales contracts for the gas, with CITIC Pacific’s Sino Iron project, also located south of Karratha, as the foundation customer.
Apache Corporation chairman and chief executive G Steven Farris, who attended the official opening, said the company was focused on further exploration off the WA coast.
“The Carnarvon Basin has significant resources yet to be discovered, and it will be a focus of Apache’s exploration activities for many years,” Mr Farris said.
Apache Energy managing director Thomas Maher said Apache was the second-largest operated-volume producer of oil and gas in the Carnarvon Basin.
“Devil Creek will enable us to increase our domestic gas sales to the Western Australian market where we already have an established profile,” he said.
“Our involvement in the Chevron-operated Wheatstone project and BHP Billiton’s Macedon project will see this commitment continue to grow in the next few years.”
