Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
US oil and gas supermajor Chevron is the major LNG producer in WA with its Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects and a share in the North West Shelf project.
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Chevron's slice of the North West Shelf LNG project is touted as ideal for infrastructure investors. It is the opposite - highly risky, complex and dysfunctional.
After action by safety regulators Chevron will progressively shut down all LNG trains at Gorgon to fix faulty welds in propane-filled pressure vessels.
Chevron's ambitious injection of Gorgon CO2 shaped the $US54B LNG project and a year after starting up 2.5 years late its long-term performance remains to be proved.
Chevron faces shutting Gorgon LNG down to make it safe after WA safety regulators responded to reports of thousands of cracks in propane-filled vessels.
Chevron has "put additional mitigations in place" to protect workers while it mulls what to do with two giant LNG trains operating at Gorgon that could have defective welds.
Chevron intends to have cracked propane vessels fixed and Gorgon LNG back in full production by September as it awaits inspection by the safety regulator.
Chevron's 5-month process to trim its Australian workforce twice as hard as its global cuts will now start the musical chairs of allocating spots in the leaner organisation.
The safety and economic stakes for Gorgon LNG are high as WA Government inspectors soon head to Barrow Island to check on Chevron's cracked pressure vessels.
Safety regulators knew nothing of cracked pressure vessels at Chevron's Gorgon LNG plant until alerted by media reports and now plan to inspect the equipment themselves.
Thousands of cracks raise questions about the safety of the Gorgon LNG plant and operator Chevron will decide to shutdown or maintain revenue, with the safety regulator on the sidelines.
Peter Coleman's challenges: an ageing plant, high cost gas, partner churn and global forces making the LNG game tougher than anyone envisaged a few years ago.
Chevron has been denied a two-year free pass on Gorgon greenhouse gas emissions by the WA Government that could cost it more than $80 million, and there may be a future bill for Wheatstone as well.
