Former tropical cyclone Narelle continues to disrupt major Australian LNG plants, exacerbating a global supply crunch amid Middle East tensions.
SYDNEY: The Narelle storm system continued disrupting production at two of Australia’s biggest liquefied natural gas plants on Saturday as the former tropical cyclone weakened in the country’s northwest.
Narelle, which has crossed Australia’s Queensland state and Northern Territory since making landfall as a category four tropical cyclone on March 20, hit Western Australia on Thursday. The storm affected LNG plants run by Chevron and Woodside.
Chevron Australia was working to restore production at its Gorgon and Wheatstone gas facilities following outages. A spokesperson said severe weather likely caused the interruptions at both sites.
“We will resume full production at both facilities once it is safe to do so,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Gorgon is Australia’s largest LNG export facility, producing 15.6 million metric tons a year. Wheatstone has a capacity of 8.9 million tons.
Woodside said a production interruption continued at its Karratha gas plant, the onshore facility for the North West Shelf project. Production was uninterrupted at its Macedon and Pluto facilities.
“Production at the North West Shelf Project is expected to recommence after Woodside is able to mobilise its workforce to its offshore facilities,” a spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Narelle remained dangerous despite the downgrade. He stated the government was in touch with the Western Australian government and ready to assist.
The ex-cyclone was east of Geraldton, about 375 km north of Perth, and weakening as it moved south-southeast. Australia’s weather forecaster said it was expected to continue tracking quickly over land while weakening further.
The storm’s impact has exacerbated a global supply crunch. Australia became the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after Qatar shut down production this month following damage from Iranian strikes.
Global LNG flows out of the Middle East have also been upended by Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. The blockage is part of the regional conflict launched a month ago by the U.S. and Israel.
