A powerful tropical cyclone in Western Australia has disrupted production at the country’s two biggest liquefied natural gas plants run by Chevron and Woodside, worsening a global supply crunch linked to the conflict in the Middle East.

Global LNG Supply Under Pressure

Australia became the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after Qatar shut down production this month following damage to its facilities from Iranian strikes.

Global LNG flows from the Middle East have also been disrupted by Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

Chevron Facilities Hit by Cyclone

Chevron said it was working to restore production at its Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities in Western Australia following outages likely caused by Tropical Cyclone Narelle, a Category 3 storm that made landfall on Friday.

Gorgon, Australia’s largest LNG export facility, produces 15.6 million metric tons a year across three processing trains. Wheatstone, the smaller plant, has two trains producing 8.9 million tons annually.

“We will resume full production at both facilities once it is safe to do so,” a Chevron Australia spokesperson said.

An outage at the Wheatstone platform, about 225 km off Australia’s west coast, occurred around midday on Thursday, leading to a suspension of onshore gas production.

“All personnel were demobilised from the Wheatstone Platform ahead of the cyclone, which has been operated remotely from our Perth office since Tuesday afternoon,” the spokesperson added.

Around three hours later, an outage shut down one of three LNG production trains at the Gorgon facility on Barrow Island, about 50 km offshore.

Woodside Output Also Affected

Woodside said production at its Karratha gas plant had also been disrupted by the cyclone.

The plant is the onshore processing facility for the North West Shelf, Australia’s oldest and second-largest LNG project, producing 14.3 million metric tons a year after one of its five production trains was shut down.

The company lowered its 2026 production guidance to between 172 million and 186 million barrels of oil equivalent, compared with a record 198.8 million barrels in 2025.

Production will restart once Woodside is able to mobilise its workforce to offshore facilities, the company said. Operations continue at its Macedon domestic gas plant and Pluto LNG facility.

Other Operators and Damage Assessment

Japanese oil company Inpex said there had been no damage or outages at its Ichthys LNG project in Western Australia.

Authorities are still assessing the impact of the cyclone, with officials warning the damage could be significant.

Separately, Santos confirmed its 3.7 million ton Darwin LNG project is temporarily offline due to maintenance work.

(with inputs from Reuters)