PERTH (miningweekly.com) – US oil and gas major Chevron will need at least two more days to resume production from its Wheatstone gas plant, near Onslow in Western Australia, but the state government has assured that supply in the region will not be affected.
Chevron ceased gas production at Wheatstone on January 5, following a technical failure.
The federal government over the weekend announced that while the plant had been expected to restart on Sunday, the restart had been delayed a further two days by technical problems.
The incident follows reduced supply from the Santos-operated John Brookes facility at Varanus Island and Devil Creek facility after recent interruptions.
The state government said in a statement that while the number of commercial production facilities being offline or at reduced output is unprecedented, there was no risk to household gas or electricity supply.
Gas suppliers and marketers are actively seeking to meet gas demand from industry, and the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline remains in a stable state.
“The fact that the state can continue to have a stable gas supply despite three facilities either being offline or at reduced output highlights the strength of our energy system,” Energy Minister Bill Johnston said.
“The domestic gas reservation policy, which guarantees 15% of supply is retained for local use, continues to be the backbone of our energy security here in Western Australia.
“Neither residential gas or electricity supply is at risk as a result of the Wheatstone outage. Household gas usage represents a very small percentage of total gas use in Western Australia at 7%.
“While industry may pay market prices in the short term to secure gas, commercial operators are responding appropriately,” Johnston said.
Aluminium major Alcoa has has taken a production unit at its Kwinana alumina refinery offline, given the gas supply challenges, also saying on Monday that process flows at the refinery have been reduced. This has resulted in a near 30% reduction in production at the refinery, with the company saying that there was no timeline for restoring full production.
The Pinjarra and Kwinana refineries have been using diesel as a temporary fuel source for some operational needs, but Alcoa said that the company was continuing to look for opportunities to manage its energy position while maintaining safe and efficient production at its refineries.