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 supplies oil and gas to Australian and international markets from huge gas and condensate fields in the Carnarvon Basin on Australia’s northwest continental shelf.

With an international reputation for the safe and reliable delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to customers in the Asia Pacific region, the North West Shelf Venture has delivered more than 2700 LNG cargoes since 1989. The North West Shelf Venture also produces oil and condensate – a light crude oil – for international energy markets, and to date has delivered more than 1000 cargoes of condensate.

For 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.  Domestic gas is processed at the Karratha Gas Plant and delivered to customers in southern Western Australia via the 1600km Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.
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$3 billion each year in 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 Karratha and the Shire of Roebourne the North West Shelf Venture has made significant investments in infrastructure and programs that support the social, cultural and economic capacity of the community.

In 2009 the North West Shelf Venture reached two significant milestones with more than 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 including 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)