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Woodside sees first quarter output slide


Wire services

Woodside Petroleum’s first-quarter output fell 4% from a year earlier due to the impact of cyclones, maintenance of some fields and the sale of assets, the Perth-based outfit said today.

Quarterly output of 17.2 million barrels of oil equivalent also fell 4% on the previous quarter.

"Strong performance from the Stybarrow oil field, reinstatement of production from the Corallina field and the ramp up of Otway production only partially offset the production impact of tropical cyclones ... the Karratha gas plant shutdown in January and natural field decline of mature fields", Woodside said in a statement.

Woodside sold its Chinguetti oilfield in Mauritania and the Legendre field off Western Australia last year.

Condensate production fell to 87,040 barrels per day from 102,391 bpd in the previous quarter due to the shutdown of the Karratha plant in Western Australia and a planned shut-in of the Echo-Yodel pipeline in the same region.

Production from its Enfield oilfield off Western Australia fell about 50% to 28,730 bpd, due to cyclones as well as the shut-in of a well after it started to produce sand.

However, production from the Stybarrow field off Western Australia, operated by BHP Billiton, rose to 65,430 bpd, versus 45,228 bpd in the previous quarter. Woodside said the field was producing between 70,000 and 80,000 bpd at the end of the first quarter.

Woodside, 34% owned by supermajor Anglo-Dutch Shell, said sales revenue for the January to March quarter was A$1.099 billion ($1.04 billion).

It said its Vincent oil project was on schedule for start up in early third quarter, while the Train 5 expansion of the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project was also on track for first delivery in the fourth quarter of this year.

Construction of Train 1 at its A$12 billion Pluto LNG project has commenced and Woodside reaffirmed that, subject to gas availability, it was targeting a final investment decision for Pluto's train two expansion by the end of the year.

Woodside reaffirmed its January forecast for production this year of between 80 million and 86 million boe.

But the company said that a delayed startup of the planned 50,000 barrels per day Neptune oil project in the Gulf of Mexico would cut its output by 0.15 million boe each month from now until the field comes onstream.

BHP Billiton operates the Neptune field, in which Woodside has a 20% stake, reported Reuters.

Thursday, 17 April, 2008, 01:46 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 17 April, 2008, 06:33 GMT

At work: a floating production, storage and offloading vessel pumps up Woodside's "black gold"
 

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