Following an outage at Chevron‘s Wheatstone domestic gas plant, the Western Australian (WA) Government is working to ensure that WA is adequately supplied with gas.
The plant encountered a technical malfunction on Thursday, 5 January, resulting in the suspension of gas production.
In a statement, the State Government said the Wheatstone plant was supposed to operate on Sunday, but it has been postponed by at least two days due to technical issues with the operator.
Following recent outages, supply from the Santos-operated John Brookes facility on Varanus Island and the Devil Creek complex was decreased.
While the amount of commercial manufacturing facilities that are shut down or operating at reduced capacity is extraordinary, there is no threat to residential gas or electricity supplies.
Gas suppliers and marketers are aggressively attempting to meet industrial gas demand, and the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline remains stable.
Energy Minister Bill Johnston said the fact that WA can maintain a reliable gas supply despite three facilities being offline or operating at reduced capacity demonstrates the robustness of our energy system.
“The domestic gas reservation policy, which guarantees 15 per cent of supply is retained for local use, continues to be the backbone of our energy security here in WA,” Minister Johnston stated.
According to the Minister, the Wheatstone outage poses no threat to home gas or electrical delivery.
Minister Johnston added that household gas consumption accounts for only 7 per cent of total gas consumption in WA.
“While industry may pay market prices in the short term to secure gas, commercial operators are responding appropriately. I would again like to thank all market participants for their co-operative behaviour,” Minister Johnston said.
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