The partners in the giant Gorgon gas project off the coast of western Australia will seek approval to add a third processing plant to boost production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Chevron Corp said yesterday.
The partners -- Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp -- this year won approval to build two 5 million tonnes a year LNG processing plants, or trains, on Western Australia state's remote Barrow Island, but will now seek approval for a third, taking total output to 15 million tonnes a year.
"Developing three LNG production trains in quick succession improves project economics and addresses mounting industry cost pressures," said Scott Walker, a Chevron spokesman.
The Gorgon partners plan to submit an environmental assessment for the third train to the state's Environmental Protection Authority in early 2008.
The third train will be built within the approved 300-hectare development sight for the project and Chevron said it expects very little change to the environmental impact of the project.
Chevron said in the next 12 months the partners would work to secure approvals, commence front-end engineering and design work and boost the project team with the possibility of early works on Barrow Island.
Australia's federal government defied opposition from conservation groups and the state environment agency and approved the project, despite concerns that it will disturb the habitat of an endangered species of marine turtle.
Separately, Haiti is seeking a contract with Chevron to ship Venezuelan oil purchased under President Hugo Chavez's discount fuel program, a government official said on Sunday.
Haiti joined Chavez's Petrocaribe initiative more than a year ago, but has been unable to transport or receive any oil shipments so far, said Michael Lecorps, director of the aid management office in charge of implementing the program.
An agreement with Chevron to ship the oil from Venezuela to Haiti would allow the fuel-starved nation to import 14,000 barrels of oil a day, he said.
Under Petrocaribe's financing terms, Haiti would have three months to pay for 60 percent of each oil shipment, and 25 years to pay the balance at 1 percent interest, officials said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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