SYDNEY: One of the world’s biggest gas plants has begun shipping fuel after months of delays and cost overruns, operator Chevron said, with a vessel leaving Australia bound for Japan. The $52 billion Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Australia’s northwest coast — the country’s largest resources project — started production in early March, with its first shipment departing Barrow Island on Monday, Chevron said. Chevron owns 47.3 per cent of the venture. The delivery was to Chubu Electric Power, one of the smaller partners (0.417 per cent) in the joint venture that includes Shell and ExxonMobil, which each hold 25 per cent. Other Gorgon partners are Japanese firms Osaka Gas (1.25 per cent) and Tokyo Gas (one per cent).