LNG Carriers Circle Off Australia’s North West Shelf Due to Power Outage

By Oleg Vukmanovic

May 8 (Reuters) – A lack of energy provide since May 5 has harm manufacturing of liquefied pure fuel (LNG) at Australia’s North West Shelf export plant, a spokesperson for operator Woodside Petroleum mentioned on Friday.

A long-lasting outage may tighten gas provides to Asian markets and would possibly assist to underpin a restoration for spot LNG costs which have been struggling to soak up a glut of provide amid weak demand.

“On Tuesday, May 5 an electrical incident occurred at the North West Shelf Project’s Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) resulting in a loss of power supply,” the spokesperson mentioned.

“LNG production has been impacted and we are working to resume production.” Pipeline fuel manufacturing has not been affected, the spokesperson mentioned.

North West Shelf provides Asian markets with round 16.3 million tonnes of LNG annually.

The Karratha fuel plant services embrace 5 LNG processing crops, or trains, two home fuel trains in addition to storage services for LNG and different fuels, in response to Woodside’s web site.

The 126,942 cubic metre capability Northwest Snipe LNG tanker, one of many venture’s seven vessels, has been circling outdoors port for a number of days, dwell ship-tracking knowledge on Reuters Eikon reveals. So has the 126,815 cubic metre capability Northwest Seaeagle.

Another venture vessel, the Northwest Swan, getting back from a supply to Singapore ought to arrive on Saturday, in response to ship knowledge. Two additional tankers off the power, the Dapeng Star and Dapeng Moon, had dropped anchor.

The six stakeholders within the LNG plant are BHP Billiton , BP, Chevron, Japan Australia LNG, Shell and Woodside, which operates the plant. (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan; enhancing by David Clarke and Jane Merriman)