wapet (wa petroleum) discovered the saladin oil field just off thevenard island in 1985, followed by further discoveries including a series of gas fields, leading to the north west shelf project on the burrup peninsula, the gorgon project on barrow island and the wheatstone project on the mainland in onslow. the company was granted a lease to build production facilities on thevenard island; the first oil was produced from the project in 1989. other fields were brought online between 1991 and 1998 using facilities both off-shore and on thevenard itself. in 2000, chevron australia became operator of the oil and gas exploration and production assets previously managed by wapet. production from off-shore oil fields including saladin ceased in 2014. the new owners, chevron corporation, tried to sell the facilities on thevenard without success. the decision was made in 2015 to decommission the site, with the removal of all plant, road and footing expected to take two years. the operators of the remaining land lease and tourism business on thevenard and direction islands, mackerel islands pty ltd, state as of 2017 ″the mackerel islands and wa petroleum have maintained a harmonious and collaborative association throughout the past 30 years of operation. currently decommissioning of the projects is under way, where some of the infrastructure still stands on thevenard island. in the coming years this will be removed, leaving mackerel islands to devote sole use of thevenard nature reserve to developing eco-tourism facilities and activities.″