Woodside's (ASX: WPL) reserves of natural gas and processing infrastructure in Western Australia position it to take advantage of growing demand for natural gas in Asia. But what do those reserves and infrastructure actually look like?

This chart from Morningstar equity analyst Mark Taylor’s special report shows how offshore natural gas (yellow bubbles) is shipped to shore (blue lines) and processed into a liquid for transport at giant facilities called "trains" (grey).

Gas tends to escape. That’s why natural gas is often transported as a liquid, thus liquified natural gas (LNG). To convert the gas, it is first purified, then cooled to negative 161 degrees. By comparison, the lowest recorded temperature on Earth was negative 89.2 degrees. This very cold liquid is then piped onto specialised ships for transport overseas. 

Woodside is about to decide on investing in a new field 430km offshore. If approved, a 430km pipe (dotted red line) will take the gas to the Pluto facility onshore. The Pluto facility will also be upgraded (dotted red box).

If upgraded Pluto will be able to process 21.9 billion litres of liquid natural gas a year. That’s about 8,757 Olympic swimming pools' worth; 24 pools' worth a day.

woodside

(click to enlarge)

Source: Company filings / Morningstar