Accord Reached on Australian Gas Pipeline

Chevron Corp. has reached an agreement giving it pipeline access to land claimed by several thousand Aborigines in Australia, the company said. However, several obstacles to construction of the $1.4-billion project remain. The deal with representatives of some 70 Aboriginal groups includes a promise from Chevron to fund job-training and business-development opportunities, though no cash payments will be made to the groups. The 1,500-mile pipeline--extending from Cape York in northwest Australia to Gladstone on the country’s central east coast--will deliver natural gas starting in mid-2001 from 4 trillion cubic feet of reserves in Papua, New Guinea. The pipeline is far from a done deal, however. San Francisco-based Chevron said this week it is still negotiating with 950 farmers and other landowners along the proposed route. A Chevron subsidiary, Chevron Niugini, is the operator of the Chevron pipeline project and has a 19.4% stake, as does British Petroleum. Other owners include Mobil Corp., with 16.5%; Orogen Minerals Ltd., with 15.8%; BHP Petroleum, with 9.7%; Oil Search Ltd., with 7.8%; Mitsubishi Oil Co., with 4.5%; and local landowners, with 6.8%. The pipeline would deliver up to 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, the company said.