Energy giants Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil yesterday agreed to develop Australia’s massive Gorgon field, giving the final go-ahead to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Chevron said the joint venture partners would start work immediately on the plant, pumping A$43 billion (US$37 billion) into the initial construction phase.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the project off the nation’s northwest, which is expected to begin production in 2014, would provide a valuable source of jobs and exports.
PHOTO: AFP
“The Gorgon investment will be Australia’s largest-ever resources development and is expected to generate 300 billion [Australian] dollars in Australian export earnings,” he said in a statement.
The project is already underpinned by supply contracts with China, Japan, India and South Korea worth a combined A$145 billion, including ExxonMobil’s record A$50 billion deal with PetroChina.
“Gorgon will supply cleaner burning natural gas for the growing Asia-Pacific and Australian markets, create thousands of jobs and generate substantial revenue for Australia,” senior Chevron executive Jim Blackwell said.
Gorgon, the world’s largest LNG plant, will be built on Barrow Island, a nature reserve about 70km off Western Australia.
The Australian government approved the project last month after imposing strict environmental conditions.
ExxonMobil said Gorgon had an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, providing an important source of energy for Asia’s burgeoning economies.
“With global demand for LNG forecast to triple by 2030, the Gorgon project will be a critical supply source in meeting this future demand, particularly for the economies in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region,” ExxonMobil senior executive Neil Duffin said.
Chevron owns a 50 percent stake in Gorgon and will operate the plant, with ExxonMobil and Shell each holding 25 percent.
Chevron said it was set to award more than A$10 billion in construction contracts in coming months as building work gets under way.
Rudd predicted immense economic benefits for Australia, with the project set to boost government revenues by A$40 billion over the next 30 years, generating 10,000 construction and 3,500 permanent jobs.
“Gorgon will help to stimulate Australia’s economic growth and provide energy security for many decades,” he said.
Macquarie economist Hayden Atkins said the mammoth project had positive growth implications for the entire economy.
“This provides upside to both near and medium-term growth projections,” the economist told Dow Jones Newswires.
Rudd also praised Gorgon’s environmental credentials, saying plans to pump excess emissions into rock 2km beneath Barrow Island would make it the world’s biggest carbon dioxide geological storage project.
He said economies that used LNG rather than coal to generate energy also significantly reduced their greenhouse gas emissions.
Gorgon is just one of a clutch of LNG projects planned in Western Australia and Queensland over the next decade that analysts say will see Australia challenge Qatar as the world’s major gas exporter.
Australia exported 15.2 million tonnes of LNG valued at A$5.2 billion in 2006, a figure the government estimates will quadruple to 60 million tonnes by 2015 if all planned projects proceed.
The gas is liquefied for shipping abroad, where it is turned back into gas and distributed via a pipeline.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary