On Thursday, Chevron Corp. said that the restart of the Train 2 unit of its Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Western Australia would be suspended to October on the ground that more time is needed to restore the welds on its propane heat exchangers.
The Train has been under a maintenance shutdown since May but following the finding of cracks in the production unit’s propane kettles. Initially, the repairs were targeted to complete by early September.
Chevron stated, “Chevron expects the repairs to the heat exchangers, where weld quality issues were discovered during scheduled maintenance in July 2020, to be complete and to restart production at Train 2 next month.”
Previously, in July, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said that cracks up to 1 meter long and 30 millimeters deep were found on between eight and 11 kettles on Train 2. The union called for an immediate shutdown of the whole plant for safety inspections.
In August, Western Australia’s industrial regulator had allowed Chevron to close the other two Gorgon trains for inspection and gradual repairs. Train 1 is to be shut in October, while Train 3 in January.
