The North West Shelf Venture's Onshore Gas Plant located on the Burrup Peninsula near
Dampier in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, produces gas for domestic or West
Australian consumption (Domgas), liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gases
(LPG) and natural gas condensate, a light oil produced when gas condenses at
atmospheric pressure.
Total investment in the Onshore Gas Plant to date is more than $12 billion. Each year,
7.5 million tonnes of LNG is shipped to long-term customers in Japan and to "spot"
buyers around the world.
The six equal participants in the North West Shelf Venture are: Woodside Energy Ltd. (operator); BP Developments
Australia Pty Ltd; Chevron Australia Pty Ltd; BHP Billiton Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty Ltd; Japan Australia LNG
(MIMI) Pty. Ltd; and Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Limited.
The NWSV has been developed in three phases:
- The first phase – the Domestic Gas Phase, involved construction of one of the world's biggest capacity offshore gas
production platforms (North Rankin A), which began operating in 1984. Today, the North Rankin A and Goodwyn A
platforms and the floating production vessel, Cossack Pioneer, extract gas, condensate and crude oil for export or
processing onshore, which are more than 130km away from the Onshore Gas Plant
- The second major phase of development began in 1985 − the LNG export phase, involved the construction of two LNG
processing units, known as trains and associated stabilisation and condensate storage facilities, each with the capacity to
produce 2.2 million tonnes of LNG a year. The first Australian cargo of LNG was exported to Japan in 1989
- The third phase, completed in 1993, involved construction of a third LNG train and facilities to cope with the higher
condensate and LPG content of the gas. This brought the total annual capacity of the plant to 6.6 million tonnes of LNG
Completion of the third phase of LNG development was followed closely by the decision to add LPG (butane and
propane) to the product mix. Completed in 1995, this expansion included construction of a new load-out jetty for
exporting LPG and condensate, as well as storage tanks for butane and propane.
De-bottlenecking of the existing three LNG trains was completed during 1995, raising the plant’s annual LNG production
capacity to 7.5 million tonnes p.a.
The most recent LNG Expansion Project comprised a single, fourth LNG processing train with a capacity of 4.2 million tonnes of LNG a year, with associated utilities and general facilities. A second Trunkline Onshore Terminal (TOT), for a
second 42-inch diameter pipeline connecting the plant and the Venture’s gas fields was also engineered and constructed
under The Project.
The new LNG facilities were constructed near the existing plant, and were integrated into the existing operations, sharing
some existing facilities and LNG storage and loading systems.
The first LNG production from the new LNG train 4 was in mid-2004.
Woodside Energy Ltd, on behalf of the North West Shelf Venture Participants, signed a contract worth about AUD$280
million for Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management associated with the expansion of its LNG operations
in April 2001 with the Kellogg Joint Venture (KJV), comprising Halliburton Australia (a Kellogg Brown & Root company),
Hatch-Kaiser Engineers, Clough Engineering and JGC Corporation.
The Joint Venture had previously been awarded an Early-Engineering Procurement and Construction contract for initial
work required for the expansion project. The Kellogg Joint Venture’s Perth, Western Australian headquarters was home to
over 450 staff as part of the 350-person engineering design team.
The engineering schedule of 29 months began on 1 July 2000. The construction phase was executed on a 38-month
schedule.
- KJV was committed to ensuring that engineering standards on the project were of the highest order; as such all
detailed engineering were carried out in the one location, in Perth. Woodside's engineering team was also integrated
into the process to eliminate duplication and maximise the transfer of knowledge skills
- Maximum utilisation of intelligent design tools; 3D Plant Design System (PDS) modeling, 2D PDS, intelligent PDS,
PDS Explorer toolsets and instrument design management. Electronic linkage between isometrics and pipe fabricators
allows automatic download of data to suppliers. Likewise, there was electronic linkage between PDS frameworks and
steel fabricators and shop detailers, working within the engineering team
- Unlike the initial three trains, LNG Train 4 was designed in the Perth office of KJV. This was the first time that a new
plant had been designed in its country of origin
- Like the existing trains, the new train were fully air-cooled and featured high-efficiency gas turbine (aero-derivative)
generators to augment existing power generation. An advanced nitrogen rejection system was provided to maximise
LNG production
- The construction workforce peaked at 1800-2000 in the first half of 2003, with a rapid escalation in numbers
beginning in the second half of 2002
- The A$1.6 billion expansion project was estimated to provide a major boost to Western Australian exports, with
significant flow-on effects elsewhere in the economy. About 9,000 direct and indirect jobs across Australia were
created during the peak construction period
- The overall level of Australian content in the project was around $1billion or about two-thirds of the total project cost
- The massive foundations for the project contained about 12,000 tonnes of concrete
