Representing an investment of A$27 billion, the Woodside-operated North West Shelf Venture facilities constitute Australia’s largest oil and gas resource development and currently account for more than 40 per cent of Australia’s oil and gas production.

 

The North West Shelf Venture is one of the world’s largest LNG producers.and supplies oil and gas to Australian and international markets from huge gas and condensate fields in the Carnarvon Basin on Australia’s north-west continental shelf. To build this project today would require an investment of over $50 billion.

 

With an international reputation for the safe and reliable delivery of LNG to customers in the Asia Pacific region and other parts of the world, the North West Shelf Venture has delivered more than 2800 LNG cargoes since 1989.

 

The North West Shelf Venture also produces oil and condensate – a light crude oil – for international energy markets, with more than 1260 cargoes of condensate delivered to date.

 

For more than 25 years the North West Shelf Venture has been Western Australia’s largest producer of domestic gas, and currently provides about 65 per cent of total State production.

 

The North West Shelf Venture also supplies LPG for the world market and Western Australia.

 

Production from the North West Shelf Venture accounts for about one per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product and contributes more than A$5 billion each year in State and Commonwealth taxes and royalties.

 

Almost A$800 million a year is injected directly into Australian business through operating costs, and thousands of jobs are created during construction and as part of ongoing operations.

 

In 2009 the North West Shelf Venture reached two significant milestones with 25 years of domestic gas production and 20 years of LNG exports to international customers in the Asia Pacific region, where LNG provides power and gas for Japan’s major industrial regions. This includes some 90 million Japanese people, as well as millions of consumers in China and Korea.

 

Location:

Karratha, 1200km north of Perth

Commissioned:

1984 - natural gas for West Australian market 1989 - LNG Train 1 (2.5 million tonnes a year) 1989 - LNG Train 2 (2.5 million tonnes a year) 1992 - LNG Train 3 (2.5 million tonnes a year) 2004 - LNG Train 4 (4.4 million tonnes a year) 2008 - LNG Train 5 (4.4 million tonnes a year)