Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) has announced that its Australian subsidiaries have signed binding long-term Sales and Purchase Agreements (SPAs) with Tohoku Electric Power Company, Inc. (Tohoku) to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project in Western Australia.

Under the agreements, Chevron subsidiaries, together with subsidiaries of Apache Energy and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company, will supply Tohoku with 0.9 million tons per annum of LNG for up to 20 years.

Joe Geagea, president, Chevron Gas and Midstream, said, "These agreements with Tohoku create a new partnership between our companies and demonstrate the benefits of buyers and sellers working together to ensure supply is brought to the market to meet growing LNG demand."

Roy Krzywosinski, managing director, Chevron Australia, said, "We welcome the agreements with Tohoku, which mean that 85 percent of Chevron's equity LNG from Wheatstone is now committed to customers in Asia on a long-term basis.  These agreements, combined with our ongoing exploration success, demonstrate that our Wheatstone and Gorgon projects in Australian are well-placed to meet the growing demand for natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region."

The Wheatstone Project is located at Ashburton North, 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) west of Onslow in Western Australia. The project will consist of two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million tons per annum and a domestic gas plant.

The Wheatstone Project is a joint venture between Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (64.14 percent), Apache Energy (13 percent), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (7 percent), Shell (6.4 per cent), and Kyushu Electric Power Company, Inc. (1.46 percent), together with PE Wheatstone Pty Ltd. (8 percent).

Chevron also holds an 80.17 percent equity interest in the Wheatstone and Iago fields that provide 80 percent of the feed gas to the Wheatstone Project. The participants in the fields are PE Wheatstone Pty Ltd. (10 percent) as well as Australian subsidiaries of Shell (8 percent) and Kyushu Electric Power Company, Inc. (1.83 percent).