Alcoa secures long-term gas supply for WA operations

Alcoa of Australia (Alcoa) today announced a new gas supply agreement with Chevron Australia Pty Ltd (Chevron) for its Western Australian alumina refineries.

Effective 1 January 2028, the agreement will provide a total of 130 petajoules (PJ) of gas over a 10-year period.

President of Alcoa Australia Elsabe Muller said the new contract played an important role in securing the future of Alcoa’s Western Australian operations and continued its association with one of the State’s longstanding domestic gas suppliers.

“This agreement with Chevron forms part of our long-term energy strategy focussed on ensuring our refineries remain globally competitive whilst sustaining thousands of direct and indirect jobs and businesses in regional WA,” Ms Muller said.

Alcoa directly employs more than 4000 people in WA, around 60 per cent of whom live in the Peel and South West regions. In 2023, the company invested $1.9 billion with WA suppliers and provided $4.6 million in support to local community organisations. 

With the energy requirements of Alcoa’s WA refineries underpinned by natural gas they are among the lowest carbon emitting in the world with average emissions intensity (direct and indirect) less than half of the global industry average.^*

Alumina produced at the refineries is used to manufacture aluminium, a future facing metal key to the global energy transition and used in everyday life in a range of applications from medical equipment to food and beverage packaging, transportation, aviation and building and construction. 

^*Use of natural gas as an energy source means Alcoa’s WA refineries are among the lowest carbon emitting in the global alumina industry. The WA refinery portfolio has an average emissions intensity that is no more than 0.6 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per tonne of alumina produced, including both direct and indirect (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emissions from bauxite mining and alumina refining. Leveraging Alcoa's mine-to-refinery advantage, this emission intensity is less than half of the global industry average. Amended from Alcoa -- Sustana