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.
South Korea, Japan and China's tightened climate goals will crunch Australian thermal coal, make LNG investments harder and possibly kill Santos' Barossa LNG project.
Prospects for LNG are under a shadow if Paris Agreement emissions cuts are pursued, according to the IEA, leaving Woodside and Santos in a very dark place.
Researchers at the University of WA are helping to keep the cost of new gas to LNG plants down by allowing longer tiebacks without expensive compression.
BP, unlike Chevron, remains committed to Woodside-operated North West Shelf LNG as it waits to drill nearby Ironbark, but Browse is unlikely to meet its investment criteria.
Welders will have to grind out and redo repairs at Gorgon performed to an incorrect procedure provided by Chevron and the delay could cost up to $250M.
Shell's Prelude floating LNG has stumbled on the road back to production after a failed seal caused subsea wells to be shut-in days after they were opened.
The wells are open and safety inspectors arriving as Shell looks to recommence LNG production from its problematic Prelude floating LNG vessel off the WA coast.
Chevron's problems at Gorgon LNG from faulty welds years ago in a South Korean factory continue with delays to repairing the first of three trains to be fixed.
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.
