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Gorgontuan- Another $2 Billion BlowOut
#1

Chevron's massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia has been hit with another cost blowout and further delays.

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%).

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#2
Too much cost blow ups.
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#3
Kind of makes the PNG LNG project look like a bargain by comparison. Causes me to wonder how much pushback there is in the industry with respect to new capacity. Gives weight to Hession's statement regarding development certainty with Total.

Hession knows blowups:

"Mr Hession's future at Woodside was thrown into focus when the company admitted last month that building an LNG plant at James Price Point, north of Broome, would not be economically viable. Instead it has all but confirmed that it will pursue FLNG as Browse's development concept.

"Woodside has not revealed the likely development cost of the James Price Point option. But industry sources have suggested the life-of-project budget could eclipse $80 billion, for a gas field only a third the size of Chevron's 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, $US52 billion Gorgon development."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/busines...oss-quits/
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#4

'Palm' pid='34100' datel Wrote:Too much cost blow ups.

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 NOW $54 BILLION)

That is a $17.3 Billion blow up, and that blow up amount alone,  is in the ball-park with cost to build PNG LNG and likely, the cost for proposed 8Mtpa IOC/TOT plant.

Too much cost blow-ups.

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#5
Wouldn't modular plant be much more predictable?
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