The Gorgon Project: bringing Australia’s largest single resource development to life*

Abstract

The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is located off the northwest coast of Western Australia and encompasses a number of mega-projects including an all-subsea upstream development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, a greenfield gas processing facility including a 15 MTPA liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and a 300 TJ/d domestic gas plant, and the world’s largest commercial scale carbon dioxide injection project.

Due to its sheer size, scale and complexity, in addition to a number of unique characteristics, the Gorgon Project has required an extraordinary level of project execution planning.

One aspect is the processing plant’s location on Barrow Island—a remote Class A nature reserve. Core to the project’s planning and success is a meticulous and robust environmental management system designed to protect Barrow Island’s unique flora and fauna. This includes stringent environmental measures such as limits on worker population and movement, quarantine requirements for all personnel, and materials and work adjustments for seasonal flora and fauna life cycles.

The project’s scope of work is also being executed from three centres: LNG facilities centred in London, infrastructure centered in Perth and construction operations centred in London, Perth and Barrow Island (according to the phase and priorities of the project).

This paper explores the following factors: the remote location of the gas fields; cohabiting industry with Barrow Island; minimising environmental impacts using efficient construction management methods such as modularisation; and working together as one team across multiple locations and time zones to demonstrate how the extraordinary can be achieved.