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Chevron's Production at Gorgon Plant Remains Suspended

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Leading integrated energy player Chevron Corporation (CVX - Free Report) declared that production from its Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) development – located off the coast of Australia – will remain suspended. Work at the facility was stopped following a gas leakage that took place nearly two weeks ago.

It is to be noted that Chevron had halted production activities at its $54 billion project for the very first time in Apr 2016 owing to technical problems. Despite the suspension of production for the second time in beginning of July, Chevron had sufficient capacity of gas to ship its second LNG cargo on Jul 3.

However, Chevron could not ship its third LNG cargo in the second week of this month on the Asia Excellence tanker. The vessel is presently anchored approximately 100 kilometer off the company’s LNG plant, along with the Asia Endeavour, another of Gorgon’s project vessels.

Chevron is the operator of the Gorgon LNG project with a 47.3% ownership. Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) – the largest U.S. oil company by market value – and Royal Dutch Shell plc have a 25% stake each in the development. The remaining stake is held by Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power.  

The Gorgon LNG development holds the key to Chevron becoming one of the largest LNG suppliers in the world over the next four years. In fact, once the Gorgon project is completed, 15.6 million metric tons of LNG will likely be produced every year from the three production lines. The development is also expected to generate sufficient natural gas to provide electricity to 2.5 million homes in Australia.

San Ramon, CA-based Chevron is one of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world, based on proved reserves. It is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, refining and marketing of petroleum products, manufacturing of chemicals, and other energy-related businesses.

The company currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), implying that it will outperform the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

Another well-ranked player in the same sector is Sasol Limited (SSL - Free Report) , which sports the same Zacks Rank as Chevron.

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