An expert, independent of government and industry, explains how prolonged industrial activity on the Burrup Peninsula in WA endangers an Australian marvel.
Australia is the one of the world's biggest producer of liquefied natural gas. The North West Shelf, Pluto, Gorgon, Wheatstone, Prelude and Ichthys LNG projects source their gas from the waters off WA.
The Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects are now enjoying cash margins of more than $US30 a barrel at a $US50 price and production from the $111 billion mega-projects is expected to increase.
Buck-passing between oil giants over who pays for the upkeep of the ageing North West Shelf LNG plant has emerged as the biggest hurdle to Woodside sending its Browse gas to the facility.
The $US37 billion Ichthys LNG project is on track to start up next March as its two giant vessels moored about 200km off the Kimberley are readied for production.
Chevron chief executive John Watson says his company should have done more engineering and planning before it sanctioned the Gorgon LNG project in 2009.
Too much hot air around the LNG trains on Barrow Island has caused Chevron to flag a production cut at Gorgon as the US giant tackles problems onshore and offshore.
Woodside and ConocoPhillips are gravitating toward the cheapest development options for their Browse and Barossa gas fields to compete with low-cost Qatar.
Designing Shell's Prelude floating LNG project involved shrinking a complex LNG plant and making it safe in cyclonic seas on top of the world's largest offshore facility.
