North West Shelf

The North West Shelf of Western Australia is an extensive oil and gas region off the North West Australia coast in the Pilbara region.

It has a considerable number of oil and gas wells, pipelines, production areas and support facilities.

Location

As an area it is located in the Indian Ocean between North West Cape and Dampier. Dampier is usually considered the main administrative locality for the shelf.

Production areas

The production areas are located offshore and within the jurisdiction of the Western Australian state government.

The two main production areas are known as the Thevenard Production Area close to the location of Onslow - while the Varanus Production Area is located west of Dampier.

Oil fields

The North West Shelf oil extraction is negligble compared to the volume of gas produced.

Gas Project

The North West Shelf Natural Gas Development Project is a project that utilises resources within the region from various gas fields - however it is considered to be only in part of the whole shelf region. It involves developments on the Burrup Peninsula, Barrow Island and other locations.

Points of the compass

The points of the compass are points on a compass, specifically on the compass rose, marking divisions of the four cardinal directions: North, South, East, West. The number of points may be only the 4 cardinal points, or the 8 principal points adding the intercardinal (or ordinal) directions northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). In meteorological usage further intermediate points are added to give the sixteen points of a wind compass. Finally, at the most complete in European tradition, are found the full thirty-two points of the mariner's compass. In ancient China 24 points of the compass were used.

In the mariner's exercise of boxing the compass, all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order. The names of intermediate points are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading (or course or azimuth) in a general or colloquial fashion, without having to resort to computing or recalling degrees. For most applications, the minor points have been superseded by degrees measured clockwise from North.

2006 North West 200 Races

The 2006 North West 200 Races took place on Saturday 13 May 2006 at the 8.966 mile circuit, dubbed "The Triangle", based around the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush, in Northern Ireland.

Steve Plater and Bruce Anstey both scored double victories at the meeting. Robert Dunlop also recorded the last of his 15 victories, winning the 125 cc event. The current course lap record was set by Steve Plater at 124.109 mph (199.734 km/h) during the Supersport race.

Results

New Lap Record: Bruce Anstey, 116.743 mph

New Lap Record: Robert Dunlop, 103.153 mph

New Lap Record: Ian Hutchinson, 120.142 mph

2008 North West 200 Races

The 2008 North West 200 took place on Saturday 17 May at the 8.966 mile circuit, dubbed "The Triangle", based around the towns of Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart, in Northern Ireland. The meeting was overshadowed by the death of Northern Irish rider Robert Dunlop, the record-holder for wins at the circuit, who was killed in a practice crash on 15 May. The 47-year-old had been travelling in a group of three riders at the Mather's Cross section of the course, when his bike seized at 160 mph. He would later succumb to his injuries in a Coleraine hospital. Robert's sons Michael and William continued to race at the meeting, with Michael winning the 250cc race.

Practice