With its latest investment in infrastructure, Australian oil and gas producer, Woodside, has reaffirmed its commitment to emission reductions and growth by realising completion of a new liquefied natural gas transport hub.
The project follows the developments of the Pluto and Karratha Gas Plants in the Pilbara region of Western Australia where it has now positioned itself as a key distribution point for the booming resources sector.
Speaking at the official opening of the Pluto LNG Truck Loading Facility, Meg O'Neill, Woodside Energy Chief Operating Officer, said the hub had created 60 new jobs on the site and 85 per cent of the financial investment allocated for the project had been spent in Western Australia.
“The world faces the challenge of reducing emissions towards a lower-carbon future, and at the same time extending access to modern energy to improve living standards,” she said.
“In meeting this dual challenge, natural gas has a big role to play.”
O'Neill said natural gas was clean and reliable and the ideal partner for renewables.
The opening of the Pluto LNG Truck Loading Facility, according to O'Neill, marks an important step in Woodside's drive to capitalise on this synergy.
Western Australia, whose premier Mark McGowan was in attendance at the opening, is one of the world's largest producers of LNG.
With large-scale mining in close proximity the facility is situated to provide heavy vehicle operators across industries a distribution point.
The transport hub helps Pluto to realise its plan of spearheading the development of an LNG market for remote power generation.
Three billion litres of diesel are currently imported to the Pilbara every year.
According to O'Neill, Woodside intends to help replace the higher emissions fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 27 per cent.
“The facility will draw natural gas from our existing world class Pluto LNG production and storage facilities, and create a distribution hub to transport highly reliable and clean LNG across WA for use in remote power generation, and as a cleaner heavy transport fuel for local mining companies,” she said.
“The initial capacity of this facility alone will result in a reduction of more than 120,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, when its LNG replaces diesel for remote power generation. That is the equivalent of taking more than 25,000 cars off the road.”
It was also announced that Linfox would partner on the supply chain to deliver the fuel to Pluto's partners.
“From this one facility, our company has got some rather big plans,” said O'Neill.
(Image: Meg O'Neill, Woodside Chief Operating Officer).