A perfect storm of natural disaster and geopolitical conflict has sent shockwaves through the global energy market as Cyclone Narelle forced the mass shutdown of Western Australia’s premier liquefied natural gas facilities.
The severe weather system has effectively paralysed over 50 million tonnes of annual supply, according to MST Marquee energy analyst Saul Kavonic, leaving more than 30% of the world's LNG capacity offline.
The regional disruption compounds an existing global crunch caused by an Iranian strike on Qatar's Ras Laffan complex and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Major operators, including Chevron and Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS), have initiated emergency protocols, evacuating offshore workforces and suspending production at the massive Gorgon, Wheatstone, and North West Shelf projects.
Chevron confirmed that its Wheatstone platform, situated 225km off the coast, suffered outages on Thursday, halting both export and domestic gas flows.
While Woodside remains tight-lipped on specific asset impacts at the Burrup Peninsula, it confirmed the safe demobilisation of its offshore crew.
The timing is catastrophic for international markets; with Qatari shipments halted and benchmark prices in North Asia already doubling to US$20 per million British thermal units, the Australian outages are expected to trigger further price spikes across Asia and Europe.
At the time of reporting, Woodside Energy’s share price was $34.60.