* Category 3 cyclone batters Western Australia

* Chevron ( CVX ) reports outages at Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG

* Production at Woodside's North West Shelf also

disrupted

(Updates throughout with more information)

SYDNEY, March 27 (Reuters) - A powerful tropical cyclone

in Western Australia has disrupted production at the country's

two biggest liquefied natural gas plants run by Chevron ( CVX )

and Woodside, exacerbating a global supply crunch

caused by the conflict in the Middle East.

Australia became the world's second-largest LNG exporter

after Qatar shut down production this month following damage to

its facilities from Iranian strikes. Global LNG flows out of the

Middle East have also been upended by Iran's blockage of the

Strait of Hormuz.

Chevron ( CVX ) said it was working to restore production at its

Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities in Western Australia

following outages that were likely due to Tropical Cyclone

Narelle, a Category 3 storm, which made landfall on Friday.

Gorgon is Australia's largest LNG export facility, producing

15.6 million metric tons a year with three processing trains,

while the smaller Wheatstone consists of two trains producing

8.9 million tons.

"We will resume full production at both facilities once it

is safe to do so," a Chevron Australia spokesperson said.

An outage occurred at the Wheatstone platform, about 225 km

(140 miles) off Australia's west coast, about midday on Thursday

local time (0400 GMT), causing a suspension of onshore gas

production, the company said.

"All personnel were demobilised from the Wheatstone

Platform ahead of the cyclone passing, which has been operated

remotely from our Perth office since Tuesday afternoon," the

spokesperson said.

Three hours later, an outage shut down one of three LNG

production trains at the Gorgon facility on Barrow Island, about

50 km offshore.

Woodside also said production at its Karratha gas plant had

been disrupted by the cyclone. The gas plant is the onshore

processing facility for the North West Shelf, Australia's oldest

and second-largest LNG project, producing 14.3 million metric

tons a year, down from 16.9 million tons a year after it shut

down one of its five production trains.

The company also lowered its production guidance for 2026 to

172 million to 186 million barrels of oil equivalent thanks to

downtime at its separate Pluto LNG facility after a record 198.8

million barrels of oil equivalent in 2025.

Production would restart after "Woodside is able to mobilise

its workforce to its offshore facilities," it said, adding that

operations were continuing at its Macedon domestic gas plant and

Pluto LNG.

"If there is any material impact to production or assets,

Woodside will update the market," a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Japanese oil company Inpex ( IPXHF ) said

there had been no damage or outages at its Ichthys LNG project

in Western Australia.

Darren Klemm, commissioner of Western Australia's Department

of Fire and Emergency Services, said authorities were still

waiting to assess the damage from the cyclone but that it would

likely be significant.

Separately on Tuesday, Santos confirmed its 3.7

million ton Darwin LNG project was offline temporarily. The

company said the shutdown was related to maintenance work.