Woodside Petroleum said LNG carriers were lining up to arrive at Dampier Port in Western Australia to load the first commercial cargoes from the world's latest liquefaction project.
The Pluto LNG plant is located between the Woodside-operated and 23-year-old North West Shelf LNG plant and Dampier Port on the Burrup Peninsula of Western Australia.
The single Pluto LNG processing Train will produce an initial 4.3 million tonnes per annum and deliver to long-term contract Japanese customers, including Tokyo Gas Co. and Kansai Electric.
That's as the existing NWS plant saw first-quarter 2012 LNG output slump because of cyclone disruptions and lost production because of work on the North Rankin platforms, Woodside said in its first-quarter earnings.
Woodside receives a one-sixth share of NWS LNG production. This amounted to 571,409 tonnes in the first quarter compared with 654,336 tonnes in the same three months last year.
LNG cargo deliveries from the NWS plant amounted to 54 in the first three months of 2012, compared with 66 cargoes in the same quarter last year.
The Pluto LNG project was started up several weeks ago, with the first feed-gas entering the processing Train on March 22.
Plans are already underway for an expansion. Woodside continues its search for additional Pluto LNG feed-gas in n the Ragnar Hub, which is located south-west of the Pluto gas field.
The Ragnar-1 well successfully intersected gas over a gross interval of 190 metres and the Vucko-1 well is planned to be drilled during the second quarter, Woodside said.
The Australian company continues discussions with other resource owners regarding development of additional Trains at Pluto LNG.
The Woodside-led Browse LNG project currently under development has ample contingent resources, now estimated at 15.5 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.
The Browse Basin retention licences were recently amended by the authorities to allow the Browse LNG partners to extend their final investment decision timetable into the first half of 2013.
As regards, the Sunrise Floating LNG project planned for offshore Timor Leste, Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman recently held talks with the island state's prime minister.
"Further engagement with the Timor-Leste Government is scheduled in the coming months to work towards a mutually beneficial development outcome," Woodside said.
