With investments totalling $25 billion since the early 1980s, the project is the largest resource development in Australian history. In the late 1980s, it was the largest engineering project in the world. The Venture is underpinned by huge hydrocarbon reserves within the Carnarvon Basin, with only about one-third of the Venture's estimated total reserves of of gas produced to date. Owned by an international consortium, the venture is composed of six partners each holding a one-sixth share in the project. These are: Perth-based Woodside Petroleum; BHP Billiton; BP plc; Chevron Corporation; Royal Dutch Shell plc; a venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co. called Japan Australia LNG Pty Ltd. North West Shelf Gas Pty Ltd. has a stake in the domestic gas phase of the project. Along with being a joint venture partner, Woodside is also the project operator on behalf of the other participants.
Assets
The venture currently has three currently active offshore facilities. A fourth, North Rankin B is under construction:
North Rankin A
Goodwyn A
Cossack Pioneer Floating Production Storage and Off-Loading
The condensate is transported to the Burrup Peninsula onshore facility on the mainland 130 km away by two and undersea pipes. Other assets include:
LNG and condensate loading facilities at Withnell Bay at Karratha including jetties, LNG storage tanks and other infrastructure, and supported by Dampier Port Authority.
Karratha gas plant. In 2008, the facility capacity was increased to 16.3 million tonnes per year with the commissioning of a fifth, 4.4 million tonnes per year LNG production train. As well as processing gas for export, the facility supplies domestic supplies to consumers and businesses in Western Australia. The facility also processes condensate which is extracted from the gaseous hydrocarbons during processing.
A fleet of nine purpose built LNG cargo ships. The ships are powered using gas vapour from the storage tanks on board which is used to run steam turbines. Each of the ships is equipped with four spherical tanks giving a total capacity of 125,000 cubic metres and utilise docking facilities at the Karratha gas plant's Withnell Bay terminal. A subsidiary company, North West Shelf Shipping Service Company Pty Ltd manages the shipping operations.
In March 2008, the partners approved a A$5 billion North Rankin 2 project which will underpin supply commitments to customers in Asia beyond 2013. The project will recover remaining low pressure gas from the ageing North Rankin and Perseus gas fields using compression. It will include the installation of a new platform which will stand in about 125 metres of water and will be connected by a 100-metre bridge to the existing North Rankin A platform.
Production and sales
The first LNG shipments went to Japan in 1989. 200 shipments per year in the purpose built LNG carriers totalling more than seven million tons are made around the world. Markets include sales to long term customers in Japan and spot buyers in China, Spain, South Korea and the United States. To date, the venture has produced more than 1000 cargoes of light crude oil. Condensate is sold on the international energy market. In 2002, a contract was signed to supply 3 million tonnes of LNG a year from the North West Shelf Venture to China. The contract was worth $25 billion: between $700 million and $1 billion a year for 25 years. The price was guaranteed not to increase until 2031, and, as international LNG prices were increasing, by 2015 China was paying one-third as were Australian consumers. The venture is Western Australia's largest single producer of domestic gas providing about 65% of total State production. Pipeline gas is processed at the consortium's Karratha facility, and transported to customers in southern Western Australia via the 1530 km Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline. A subsidiary company, North West Shelf Gas Pty Ltd markets the domestic gas component to customers in Western Australia through private contracts and sales to AlintaGas.
