Australia LNG disruptions continue after Narelle, thousands without power

SYDNEY, March 29 (Reuters) – Australia’s liquefied natural gas production remained disrupted and thousands were without power in the remote northwest on Sunday, more than a week after the Narelle storm system hit the country.

The impact of Narelle, downgraded from a tropical cyclone on Saturday, on LNG plants run by Chevron <CVX.N> and Woodside <WPL.AX> has exacerbated a global LNG supply crunch caused by the month-old Iran war.

Australia became the world’s second-largest LNG exporter when Qatar halted production following damage from Iranian strikes.

Narelle made landfall as a severe tropical cyclone in Queensland state on March 20 and crossed the Northern Territory before hitting Western Australia. The storm made landfall at the Western Australian town of Exmouth on March 27, also impacting the town of Karratha.

Woodside Australia said on Sunday that Narelle was still interrupting production at the company’s Karratha gas plant, the onshore processing facility for the North West Shelf project.

“We have commenced remobilising our workforce to some of our offshore facilities and inspections will inform startup processes and timing,” a company spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “production at the North West Shelf Project will recommence once it is safe to do so.”

Production was unaffected at its Macedon and Pluto facilities, the spokesperson added.

Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. On Saturday, it said it was working to restore production at its Gorgon and Wheatstone gas facilities following production outages due to Narelle.

Gorgon is Australia’s largest LNG export facility, producing 15.6 million metric tons a year with three processing trains, while Wheatstone has two trains producing 8.9 million tons.

Power remained out late on Saturday in Exmouth, a town of 2,800 people some 1,100 km (700 miles) north of West Australia’s state capital Perth, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said.

State-owned Horizon Power said extra crews were on their way to Exmouth “to support local crews to restore power to affected properties as soon as it is safe to do so”.

Exmouth, a gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef, suffered significant damage in the cyclone but no one was injured, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by William Mallard and Christian Schmollinger)