Gorgon LNG Cost Review to Take Few More Months

Chevron Corp. said Wednesday it would continue to evaluate the cost of developing the Gorgon liquefied-natural-gas project over the next few months, without saying whether the current 43 billion Australian dollar ($44.9 billion) price tag would change, Dow Jones Newswire has reported.

The newswire said that Chevron's comments came after the Australian Financial Review newspaper reported Wednesday that the project faced a cost increase of more than A$20 billion due to the strength of the local currency and construction delays.

"Uncertainty and opportunity still exist in some key assumptions--including logistics, productivity and weather--and we are evaluating these assumptions based on actual performance and will continue to do so over the next few months," the spokesman said.

Citing unidentified sources which it said have knowledge of Chevron's current cost review, the Financial Review report said the U.S. company was poised to announce the increase--from the current budget of A$43 billion--by the end of the year, Dow Jones said.