wa gas marekt tightens

this article helps to back up Eric's strategy to find gas in WA. Now he just has to find it!


NWS scraps DomGas expansion
Wednesday, November 07, 2007

THE North West Shelf Venture has abandoned its planned expansion of domestic gas production, a move that will put significant pressure on Western Australian gas supply in the next few years.

The Woodside-operated NWS Venture had aimed to boost domestic gas production by about 100 terajoules a day – or more than 15% – by upgrading turbines and putting a new compressor in existing domestic gas plant.

But The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that the upgrade had failed to meet design expectations and a decision on a new approach would now not be made until the middle of next year.

The failure to expand domestic gas production means Western Australia's gas prices – already the highest in the country – will continue to increase. It could lead to the postponement of several minerals projects and lead to renewed calls for gas reservations from LNG export projects.

A NWS venture spokesperson told The Australian that the project had met all its sales contract commitments.