Speaking at the conference yesterday, Chevron Australia Managing Director Nigel Hearne said a pipeline running from Woodside’s Scarborough field through to the Burrup Peninsula LNG hub – linking the Scarborough, Pluto, Gorgon, Wheatstone and North West Shelf (NWS) LNG developments – could ensure the resources are developed efficiently.
“Imagine a trans-Carnarvon Basin Trunkline as a multi-user offshore pipeline, connecting shared offshore infrastructure to create a truly interconnected basin,”? said Mr Hearne.
“This could link remote accumulations such as Scarborough, Thebe and the Exmouth fields to existing gas facilities such as the NWS, Pluto and Wheatstone.
“Combining this with existing pipelines to shore that interconnect with the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, the opportunities for system optimisation and value creation are mind boggling.”?
However, Mr Hearne stressed that the pipeline was only in the concept stage and would need industry collaboration and regulatory support from the state and federal governments.
Meanwhile, The Australian has revealed that Woodside is considering building a larger Pluto expansion than originally proposed to process third-party gas in the long term.
Mr Coleman says Chevron’s idea of a trans-Carnarvon pipeline was essentially the same as Woodside’s planned development for the Scarborough field, the only difference being the pipeline’s diameter.
However, he also revealed that he doesn’t anticipate Chevron’s timeline for a potential pipeline would match Woodside’s Scarborough development plans.
“My expectation is they probably won’t be quite ready yet, but at least we’ll have a structure in place,”? said Mr Coleman.
He went on to say that if Chevron’s proposed large diameter isn’t built, an alternative option would be to build a larger plant at Pluto to process Scarborough gas faster and open up capacity for other fields down the track.