- Forced to shut its $54B Gorgon liquefied natural gas export plant twice in its first five months, Chevron (CVX +0.1%) now faces calls from union officials for a probe into the site's safety, Reuters reports.
- The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union says a failed weld on a valve casing caused the gas leak that forced the plant to close on July 1, and has formally requested access to the site.
- Two industry sources claim CVX ignored advice from project partners Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) to go slow with the launch of Gorgon, according to the report.
- The two shutdowns may have cost Gorgon more than $200M in lost output, excluding repairs and other expenditures, and the outages have contributed to a jump in global LNG spot prices, which are up by ~40% since April.
- CVX said yesterday that it expected Gorgon production to resume shortly.