Unionised workers have promised "an industrial nightmare" at Chevron's massive Wheatstone LNG platform in Western Australia, where work to restore full output is ongoing after an inconveniently timed outage.
A turbine at the Pilbara coast plant, which supplies a large portion of WA's gas, tripped amid industrial action by unionised staff about 1.30pm on Thursday, cutting production by about a quarter.
At the time, the platform was being manned by a fill-in workforce.
AAP understands the turbine trip, which is not uncommon in LNG plants, was unrelated to the industrial action.
Nevertheless, energy analyst Saul Kavonic told Reuters the timing of the outage during strike action could mean production is constrained for longer.
"Chevron will try use its non-unionised workers to restart the equipment, but that can be more challenging and take longer with the less trained smaller workforce," he said.
About 500 workers kicked off industrial action last Friday at the Wheatstone platform, its downstream processing facility of the same name, and the Gorgon downstream processing facility.
Offshore Alliance, the union leading the strike, said industrial action is just getting started.
"The Chevron ideologues and industrial zealots who thought they could get away without Offshore Alliance labour on their west coast facilities are now finding out that their fantasy dreams are turning into an industrial nightmare," the union posted to Facebook on Thursday.
Gorgon and Wheatstone supply 44 per cent of WA’s domestic gas and daily revenue from the projects is estimated at $76 million a day, according to research group EnergyQuest.
Meanwhile, the Fair Work Commission will conduct an inquiry after it found a Western Australian contractor used a "sham" enterprise agreement to win work on Chevron's oil and gas facilities.
