The State Government has executed agreements to allow Woodside to fill the North West Shelf LNG facilities with gas from the Pluto fields, and to secure domestic gas supplies for Western Australia.
Woodside is building a new onshore pipeline to connect the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG facilities. Construction of the interconnector supports up to 320 construction jobs in the region and optimisation of LNG and domestic gas production across the two sites.
Woodside may produce three million tonnes of LNG at the North West Shelf site over four years with gas from the Pluto fields, with production expected to commence in 2022.
Consistent with the WA Domestic Gas Policy, Woodside has committed to make gas equivalent of 15 per cent of its LNG exports available to the domestic market.
This is in addition to its existing obligations under domestic gas commitment agreements for the North West Shelf and Pluto projects.
Woodside has also committed to make a further 45.6 petajoules of gas available to local consumers for supply from 2025 from its share of North West Shelf gas. The State will treat gas supplied under this additional commitment against Woodside's existing Pluto domestic gas commitment which was struck with the Carpenter Government in 2006.
To provide certainty for LNG industry investors and the local gas market, third parties seeking to process gas at the Pluto site will need an agreement in place consistent with the WA Domestic Gas Policy before their gas can be processed into LNG.
The new domestic gas commitments and other arrangement details will be available through the WA Domestic Gas Policy page on the https://wa.gov.au website.
As stated by the Premier Mark McGowan:
"The Pluto Acceleration project helps keep the North West Shelf LNG trains full and clears the way for new LNG export industry development.
"These agreements with Woodside reinforce our domestic gas policy and provide certainty for LNG industry investors and domestic gas consumers.
"This is another sign that confidence has returned to Western Australia, and my government will continue to work to facilitate job-creating projects that support the economy."
