Chevron Selects Saipem for Gorgon Marine Structures Project

In Australia, Saipem, in consortium with Leighton Contractors, has been awarded by Chevron the EPC contract for the Gorgon LNG jetty and marine structures project.

The scope of work will consist of the engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and commissioning of the LNG jetty and related marine structures for the new Chevron Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island, 70 kilometres off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia.

The jetty will be 2.1 kilometers long consisting of steel trusses approximately 70m long supported by 55 concrete caissons leading to the loading platforms approximately four kilometers from the shore. The marine structure will include a heavy lift facility, tug pens and navigation aids. The use of concrete caissons for supports will reduce the environmental impact of the jetty construction by eliminating the use of the traditional piled construction method, which would have required hundreds of steel piles to be driven into the sea bed. The works are expected to be completed in 2013.

The Gorgon Project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (Operator), ExxonMobil and Shell, to develop the Greater Gorgon gas fields, located between 130km and 200km off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The Greater Gorgon gas fields contain resources of about 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, Australia's largest-known gas resource.