North West Shelf

The North West Shelf of Western Australia is an extensive oil and gas region off the North West Australia coast in the Pilbara region.

It has a considerable number of oil and gas wells, pipelines, production areas and support facilities.

As an area it is located in the Indian Ocean between North West Cape and Dampier. Dampier is usually considered the main administrative locality for the shelf.

The production areas are located offshore and within the jurisdiction of the Western Australian state government.

The two main production areas are known as the Thevenard Production Area close to the location of Onslow - while the Varanus Production Area is located west of Dampier.

The North West Shelf oil extraction is negligble compared to the volume of gas produced.

The North West Shelf Natural Gas Development Project is a project that utilises resources within the region from various gas fields - however it is considered to be only in part of the whole shelf region. It involves developments on the Burrup Peninsula, Barrow Island and other locations.

Considerable parts of the region are the highest prospective gas and oil areas of Australia. The main sedimentary basin providing the opportunity is the Northern Carnarvon Basin - however it is only one part of the regional complex.

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