LNG

Chevron Corp., the US major with large overseas liquefied natural gas interests, has signed an accord on US natural gas development for Gulf Coast LNG feed-gas pipeline volumes from the prolific Haynesville Basin as well as for oil and gas in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with pipelines group Williams.

The agreement involves Williams providing natural gas gathering services to Chevron’s 26,000-acre Haynesville assets while Chevron has agreed to a long-term capacity commitment on the Louisiana Energy Gateway project led by Williams.

The Williams-led Louisiana Energy Gateway project is designed to gather gas in the Haynesville and connect to markets, including the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) and LNG exports.

The Gateway project is designed to gather “responsibly-sourced natural gas” produced in the Haynesville for growing industrial and LNG export demand along the Gulf Coast.

Additionally, Williams has agreed to use existing infrastructure to serve increased production from the Blind Faith platform, located 160 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.

US and overseas

“This is a great example of Williams and Chevron working together to accelerate the development and delivery of natural gas to supply affordable, reliable, ever cleaner energy both here in the United States and overseas,” said Alan Armstrong, President and Chief Executive of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams.

“We are proud to take another step in advancing the output potential of two of the most prolific production areas in North America,” stated Armstrong.

Chevron has a large overseas portfolio as well as its US natural gas interests, including operatorships of the Australian Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG export plants in Western Australia as well as the Angola plant in southwest Africa.

Williams handles one-third of natural gas supplies in the US with major positions in the main supply basins through its ownership of more than 32,000 miles of pipelines, including Transco, the nation’s largest-volume system.

As part of the Haynesville agreement, Williams said it planned to construct a greenfield gathering system in support of Chevron’s acreage with connectivity to the Williams Gateway project.

Gateway schedule

The Gateway project is expected to go into service in 2024 and is a key component of the Williams lower-carbon, wellhead-to-water strategy.

Williams noted that the Gateway project is ideally positioned to incorporate carbon-capture and storage as a further decarbonizing solution for natural gas production in the rapidly growing Haynesville basin.

In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Chevron is developing the Ballymore tieback to the Blind Faith platform.

The project, which involves three production wells tied back via one flowline to the nearby Blind Faith facility, has a design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Using existing connections to Blind Faith, Williams will provide offshore natural gas gathering and crude oil transportation services as well as onshore natural gas processing services for the production.

Chevron is the operator of the Ballymore project with a 60 percent working interest. The co-owner is French major TotalEnergies with a 40 percent working interest.