Gorgon costs rise again

The US supermajor revealed that the cost of the project had increased to $54 billion, up from a previous estimate of $52 billion.

The company also revealed that it expected first gas by mid-2015, pushed back from its previous timeline of the first quarter of 2015.

Despite the latest rise in costs, Chevron vice chairman George Kirkland said the project economics were “attractive”.

"We continue to make steady progress against key project milestones and are applying lessons learned to our Wheatstone development which is almost 25% complete,” he said.

“Approximately 75% of our combined LNG offtake from the two projects is committed under firm, long-term sales and purchase agreements.

“These LNG developments are two of our most important future legacy assets, representing approximately 400,000 barrels a day of net production at full capacity. They will be substantial contributors to our cash flow for decades to come."

The increase comes about a year after Chevron revealed a 40% increase on the estimated cost of the Gorgon project from $36.7 billion to $52 billion and pushed back the expected start up of the project from late 2014 to the first quarter of 2015.

Chevron did not reveal the reasons behind the latest cost increases but last year's rise was blamed on rising labour costs and low productivity associated with Barrow Island site infrastructure, logistics challenges and weather delays.

Upstream has contacted Chevron for the reasons behind the latest price hike on the project.

The Gorgon LNG project is aimed at developing the Greater Gorgon Area gas fields, which lie about 130 kilometres off the north-west coast of Australia.

It includes the construction of a 15 million tonne per annum LNG plant on Barrow Island as well as a domestic gas plant that will have the capacity to provide up to 300 terajoules per day of gas to Western Australia.

Chevron operates the project, holding a 47.33% stake, and its partners include ExxonMobil (25%), Shell (25%), Osaka Gas (1.25%), Tokyo Gas (1%) and Chubu Electric Power (0.42%).