Woodside seeks extension on Browse LNG
Woodside Petroleum will likely delay by more than six months to 2013 a decision on its liquefied natural gas project in WA's Browse Basin, the company said Monday.
A development can impact other Australian gas-export projects looking for funding and materials in a tight labour market to meet an expected surge in demand for cleaner-burning fuels from Asia.
The Browse resource, located in deep water offshore north-western Australia, contains an estimated 13.3 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 360 million barrels of condensate.
But the Browse development is facing stiff opposition from environmental groups and has angered some traditional land owners.
The company suffered a setback early this month when the Supreme Court declared the State Government's land acquisition notices at the Point were invalid.
Australia's federal government and the Western Australian state government in late 2009 threatened to strip the joint venture of its retention leases over the gas resource if they didn't agree to develop it as quickly as possible.
Woodside wants the gas to be developed at a new LNG facility at James Price Point on the Western Australian coast. Some partners, however, including Chevron Corp. and BHP Billiton Ltd., wanted to consider piping the gas to the existing North West Shelf LNG project when it runs out of gas in about a decade.
The governments' decisions in 2009 forced the venture to consider Woodside's preferred LNG project option. They agreed to make a final investment decision on the project by mid-2102.
The delay "would allow time to better evaluate the outcomes of front-end engineering and design work and the results of the tender process for the development's major contracts," Woodside said.
BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC also have interests in Browse.
Under previous CEO Mr. Voelte, Woodside set an aggressive timetable for an expansion of Pluto to two LNG production units. But the company still hasn't discovered enough gas and Mr. Coleman delayed a decision to order some parts for the expansion.
Woodside also wants to develop the Sunrise gas resource in the Timor Sea but won't be able to get the project off the ground until it resolves a dispute with the tiny nation of East Timor over where the gas should be processed.