Woodside shuts down Pluto LNG plant

“On Monday, Woodside safely shut down the Pluto LNG facility due to a fault in the Pluto control system,” a Woodside spokesperson told LNG Prime on Tuesday.

The unplanned event is under investigation.

“To maintain safety at the site, manual depressurization of the train and offshore facilities was completed,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that all personnel are safe and accounted for, while operations at the Karratha gas plant continue as normal.

Woodside’s Pluto LNG terminal currently has one train with a capacity of 4.9 mtpa, which gets gas from the offshore Pluto and Xena gas fields via a 180 km trunkline.

Pluto LNG is underpinned by long-term sales agreements with Japan’s Kansai Electric and EIG’s MidOcean Energy, which each hold a 5 percent interest in the project.

In November 2021, Woodside took a final investment decision on the Scarborough and Pluto LNG Train 2 developments.

The project also includes new domestic gas facilities and modifications to the first train.

Bechtel started building the second Pluto train in 2022.

Woodside’s Scarborough and the second Pluto LNG train projects were 73 percent complete at the end of the third quarter.

According to Woodside, the Scarborough project remains on track for first LNG cargo in 2026.