Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG export facility in Australia has returned to full production after a fault at the plant cut output by about 25% last week, the U.S. supermajor said on Monday, as strikes at its two Australian facilities escalate amid labor disputes.
LNG production at Wheatstone was cut by 25% after a fault last Thursday, the same day unions escalated strikes at the plant and Chevron’s other LNG facility, Gorgon.
The malfunction at the Australian plant coincided with the escalation of strikes at Chevron’s facilities, which together account for 5% of the world’s LNG supply.
Workers have intensified industrial action that began early last week and are planning further escalations in the coming weeks.
The unions and the U.S. company are expected to hold talks mediated by the Fair Work Commission early this week, an anonymous union official told Reuters, but expressed doubt that the dispute could be resolved during those talks.
The situation is unlikely to change for the better until at least September 22, when a labor regulator will hear the dispute after Chevron approached it in an effort to force the workers to settle.
The supermajor is seeking an “intractable bargaining” declaration from the Fair Work Commission, meaning the FWC could force workers to accept Chevron’s proposed terms.
Despite the industrial action and the outage at the Wheatstone plant, LNG exports from Australia remain unaffected.
“There has been no change to scheduled LNG deliveries. A Chevron spokesman wrote in an email to Reuters on Monday that “domestic gas facilities and supply have not been impacted”.