Chevron Australia says strike not expected to impact LNG production

The Offshore Alliance, which includes the Maritime Union of Australia and Australian Workers’ Union, said that its members working for Altrad’s companies REC and Specialist People started the action on Thursday.

This includes rolling stoppages and work bans until a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) is reached, according to OA.

“Chevron Australia is aware a number of employees at industrial and maintenance services provider Altrad, which provides services to the Gorgon and Wheatstone natural gas facilities, have commenced industrial action,” a spokesperson for Chevron Australia told LNG Prime.

“Given the nature of the work undertaken by Altrad and the mitigations in place, it is not anticipated there will be any impact to LNG and domestic gas production nor to any critical business activities at our facilities,” the spokesperson said.

In October last year, Chevron and its workers at the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG terminals agreed on new labor agreements following lengthy negotiations between Chevron and unions representing the workers.

Launched in 2016, the Gorgon LNG plant has three trains and a production capacity of about 15.6 mtpa.

The project is a joint venture of Chevron (47.3 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Shell (25 percent), Osaka Gas (1.25 percent), MidOcean Energy (1 percent), and also Jera (0.417 percent).

On the other hand, the Wheatstone project consists of two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 mtpa, and the domestic gas plant.

The project was sanctioned in late 2011, with first shipment of LNG announced in October 2017.

Chevron operates the project with a 64.14 stake and other shareholders include KUFPEC (13.4 percent), Woodside (13 percent), and Kyushu Electric (1.46 percent), together with PE Wheatstone, part-owned by Jera (8 percent).