The Gorgon project is an LNG facility to be located on Barrow Island in Western Australia, and will include two LNG processing trains, each with a capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). About three shipments a week are expected to leave a dedicated LNG loading jetty.

The subsea gas-gathering system will be located on the sea floor at the Greater Gorgon gas fields west of Barrow Island in 200-1000m water depth. It is anticipated that between 20 and 30 wells would be drilled in the Gorgon area gas fields over a 30-year period. The number of development wells and timing of construction will depend on future gas demand. The key components of the sub-sea gathering system include: development wells, subsea trees, cluster manifolds, pipeline end-manifolds, flowlines, MEG and utility pipeline, two 30-inch pipelines to Barrow Island and a control system including 180km subsea umbilical from Barrow Island to the Jansz subsea manifold. Horizontal directional drilling will be employed to minimise the impact of the shore crossings on local flora and fauna.

It is proposed that much of Gorgon's reservoir carbon dioxide be removed for disposal underground; it will be piped from the processing plant to wells drilled on the island for injection into 2500m deep saline aquifers. The Australian Government made an A$60-million offer to support the efforts of the Gorgon joint venturers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the proposed Gorgon project. The offer was to be funded by the government's A$500-million Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund, which is designed to address the risk and capital costs of demonstrating low emissions technologies to ensure they are commercially viable in the longer term. The three-year work program for the permit area includes geotechnical studies, 180 km (110 mi) of 2D seismic reprocessing, 1,700 sq km (650 sq mi) of 3D seismic survey acquisition, and the drilling of an exploration well in the additional acreage in permit W06-12. Seismic work will begin this year. There is potential for a further three-year work program in the Carnarvon basin acreage, covering an area of 3,100 sq km (1,200 sq mi) approximately 100 km (60 mi) northwest of the Australian coastline.

J P Kenny Pty Ltd and Technip Oceania Pty Ltd have been selected in a Gorgon Upstream Joint Venture (GUJV) as the front end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering, procurement, construction and management (EPCM) contractor with respect to the upstream facilities for the Greater Gorgon development. FMC Technologies and Vetco Gray are the two shortlisted subsea equipment vendors. Both vendors have performed FEED studies to take their proposed solutions forward and both companies will be included in the tender process.

The Kellogg Joint Venture - Gorgon (KJV-G) including KBR, JGC Corporation of Japan, and Australian-based partners Clough Projects Australia Pty Ltd. and Hatch Associates Pty Ltd have been selected to perform the FEED for the downstream part of the project.

Chevron will delay the final investment decision on the project for at least six months to mid-2007 despite getting the environmental go-ahead for the development from state regulators. The project is now likely to cost more than $16 billion, $5 billion more than first thought.

Chevron is the field operator with 50% equity with Shell and ExxonMobil sharing 25% each for the relevant permits.