Chevron Awards Long-Term Service Agreement for Gorgon Project in Australia to GE

Chevron this month awarded GE Oil & Gas a US$600 million 22-year contractual services agreement to maintain the compressor trains and associated equipment that will be at the heart of the Gorgon Project off the north western coast of Australia.

Under the agreement, GE Oil & Gas’ Global Services division will provide Chevron Australia with scheduled maintenance, access to expertise through resident engineers, monitoring and diagnostics of the installed equipment coupled with engineering analytics, plus an inbuilt guarantee relating to continuity of production. As part of this collaboration, GE also will manage inventory, supplying initial spare components. The agreement will cover a period of 22 years, with GE’s first contract performance manager scheduled to begin working in Perth in October 2012.

The new CSA ensures the continued participation of Australian companies and the ongoing creation of economic growth opportunities for local communities in Western Australia. The new GE service and maintenance centre in Jandakot, Perth, is expected to deliver 4,000 training days in 2013 for GE staff and employees of its customers. Read more about the training facility here: http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/ge-opens-largest-maintenance-and-training-centre-australian-oil-and-gas-industry.

GE Oil & Gas employs about 400 people in the region and expects the number to increase to 1,000 within five years when factoring in maintenance as well as its role as a key original equipment manufacturer.

Gorgon is one of the world's largest natural gas projects and the largest single resource natural gas project in Australia's history. The Gorgon Project will develop the Gorgon and Jansz/Io gas fields, located within the Greater Gorgon area, about 130 kilometres off the north-west coast of Western Australia. It includes the construction of a 15 million ton per annum (MTPA) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to provide 300 terajoules per day to supply gas to Western Australia.

Three 5-MTPA GE main refrigerant compression trains, each comprising two GE Frame-7 gas turbines plus advanced technology liquefaction compressors, will be utilised for the production of liquefied natural gas by chilling to –160°C, ready for shipping, before re-gasification and pipeline transportation for use by domestic and industrial customers.

Prior to liquefaction of the gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) will be stripped out and injected into the depleted natural gas wells 1,300-meters below the sea, to ensure its safe storage and the reduction of emissions. Six surface operating, 15-megawatt (MW) electric-motor driven GE compression trains are being deployed for this purpose.

The overall GE supply for the Gorgon project includes:

• Five 130-MW Frame-9 gas turbines in a modularised solution to meet the power generation needs of Barrow Island’s gas treatment and liquefaction facilities.
• Three main refrigerant compression trains driven by six Frame-7 gas turbines required for Gorgon’s production of 15 million ton per annum (MTPA) LNG.
• Six electric-motor driven compression trains to power Gorgon’s pioneering C02 sequestration project, one of the world’s largest, injecting up to four times more C02 than any other project worldwide.
• 20 Subsea Trees—7” VetcoGray subsea trees with retrievable choke modules to control and manage the production of gas from subsea wells.
• 20 VetcoGray subsea wellhead systems.
• Production controls systems—used to monitor and control the complete subsea infrastructure, controlled remotely from Barrow Island.
• The supply of five pipeline termination systems, five manifolds, 34 pipeline end terminations and several other structures, including pig launchers/receivers and umbilical distribution assemblies, 45 spools and 18 multi-bore well jumpers.

To read more about Chevron’s Gorgon Project and the list of other awarded contractors, click here: http://www.theresourcechannel.com.au/blog/gorgon-project-western-australia-0.