Global energy producer Shell is reconsidering its future role in the 14.4 mn t/yr North West Shelf (NWS) LNG terminal in Western Australia (WA), the latest in a series of setbacks for the developing project.
Shell regularly assesses its portfolio to inform disciplined capital allocation, a company spokesperson told Argus on 5 September. It continues to work closely with its NWS partners to deliver value, maximise future performance and meet customer needs, they added. Shell holds a one-sixth stake in the NWS project.
Australian producer Woodside Energy — which holds a 50pc stake in the terminal — declined to comment.
Shell backed out of the nearby 11.4mn t/yr Browse gas field development — which is meant supply gas feedstock to NWS — in May 2023, selling its 27pc stake in the project to producer BP.
Browse will provide NWS with enough feedstock to operate until 2070. But WA authorities have yet to approve the project.
Environmental activists have also challenged the WA government's decision to let NWS operate until 2070 on climate and cultural heritage grounds. Federal authorities provisionally signed off on the extension in May. The NWS extension depends on, but is separate from, the Browse project.
NWS produced 6.4mn b/d of oil equivalent of LNG in January-March 2025, down by 22pc on the year because of declining feedstocks and the closure of a 2.5mn t/yr LNG processing unit.
