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Australia is the world’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas. WA has the North West Shelf, Pluto, Gorgon, Wheatstone, Prelude & Ichthys LNG projects.

WA is the only State where greenhouse gas emissions have risen since 2005, the Paris Agreement baseline, mainly due to an expanded LNG industry.

The Perth-based LNG specialist operates the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG projects and is developing the Scarborough and Browse fields.

The US oil and gas supermajor is the major LNG producer in WA with its Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects and a share in the North West Shelf.

The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety oversees workplace health and safety in WA and NOPSEMA is responsible for offshore workers.

Oil and gas producers are required to plug and abandon wells and remove equipment when production ends.

The Federal Government controls offshore oil and gas production outside of nearshore State waters and determines emission and climate policy.

Renewable energy in WA comes mainly from rooftop solar panels and wind farms.

Net-zero carbon emissions are required to meet the Paris Agreement aim of limiting global warming to close to 1.5℃.

Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island began operating in 2016 has the world’s third-largest carbon capture and storage system.

Insights from Boiling Cold, piecing together not just what is happening in WA energy and climate, but why.

The Mark McGowan-led Labor government includes Bill Johnston who is responsible for energy and resources and minister for environment Stephen Dawson.

Most gas in Western Australia is produced offshore and exported as LNG, with some reserved for domestic use. Onshore production is increasing.

Domestic gas, or domgas, in WA comes from gas LNG producers are required to reserve for the local market and smaller domestic gas-only projects.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority is the independent oil and gas regulator in Commonwealth waters.

Oil production in WA comes from condensate produced with gas for LNG plants and dedicated FPSOs: floating production storage and offloading vessels.

Northern Oil and Gas Australia bought the Northern Endeavour oil production vessel in the Timor Sea from Woodside in 2016 and went into liquidation in 2020.

WA is particularly susceptible to climate change with South West rainfall already hard-hit yet it is the only State with rising carbon emissions.

Power in WA’s South West is generated by State-owned Synergy and private companies while the State’s Horizon Power and miners cover the rest of the State.

The Woodside-operated North West Shelf project near Karratha exported Australia’s first LNG cargo in 1989 and now has five trains and a domestic gas plant.

Woodside plans to bring gas from the Scarborough field it owns with BHP to the Pluto LNG plant on the Burrup Peninsula.

Santos owns the Varanus Island and Devil Creek domestic gas plants in the North West, the Dorado oil field off WA and the Barossa LNG project into Darwin.

Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility off the WA coast, that is the worlds largest vessel, has struggled to produce reliably since mid-2019.