LNG

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has dismissed two proceedings brought against the Chairman of the state’s Environmental Protection Authority challenging the Pluto LNG and Karratha Gas Plant environmental approvals made in 2019.

March 15 (LNGJ) - Off-setting, a form of self-imposed taxation thought up by the green lobby and marketed by US investment banks and now being followed worldwide by the energy industry, has moved on to the condensate sector. Western Australian LNG plant operator Woodside Petroleum and its Pluto LNG joint venture participants, Japanese utilities Kansai Electric Power and Tokyo Gas, said they delivered their first cargo of carbon-offset condensate to global commodity trading company Trafigura from the Pluto facility on the Burrup Peninsula.

   “The carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions associated with extraction, storage and shipping of the 650,000-barrel cargo will be offset through a combination of efficiency measures, which reduce emissions,” said a statement. “High-quality carbon offsets have been sourced from nature-based projects located in the Asia-Pacific region, independently validated and verified by the Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard,” it added.

Woodside Petroleum, the Western Australia LNG operator, said its half-year earnings would include non-cash, post-tax impairment losses of US$4.37 billion, including for its sales contract with Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi LNG plant in Texas.

Woodside Energy, the Western Australian liquefied natural gas plant operator, has highlighted the record-breaking production achieved in 2020 at its Pluto LNG plant amid the worst cyclone to hit the Burrup Peninsula in half a century and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of two LNG export plants in Western Australia, posted a 12 percent first-quarter increase in oil and gas production, though prices were down 20 percent along with revenues from the same three months a year ago.

Woodside, one of the biggest regional suppliers of LNG cargoes to North Asia, reported sales revenue of US$1.08 billion for the quarter ended March 31, down from US$1.36Bln a year earlier.

Production came to 24.2 million barrels of oil equivalent, up from 2.17M boe as the company mitigated the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Damien during the quarter.

Total LNG output for Woodside rose 4.5 percent to 18.31M boe from 17.53 boe in the prior-year quarter.

At the same time, Woodside like all other companies in the industry implemented responses to the combined effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and lower commodity prices.

Woodside’s first-quarter one-sixth share of LNG sales at the North West Shelf plant in Western Australia came to 606,577 tonnes, down from 652,246 tonnes in the same quarter of 2019.

The Perth-based company’s sales from its stake in the Chevron-operated the Wheatstone plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia rose to 236,185 tonnes from 175,932 tonnes in the 2019 quarter.

At Woodside’s single-Train Pluto LNG plant sales amounted to 1.163 million tonnes in the quarter, up on last year’s 1.107MT.

“Tropical Cyclone Damien, which crossed the Western Australian coast in February, was the most significant weather event ever to pass over Woodside’s production facilities on the Burrup Peninsula,” stated Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman in the company's first-quarter report.

“Despite the severity of the storm, the team put in an outstanding effort to ensure the safety of our people and our assets and restore normal operations in a matter of days,” added the CEO.

“Nevertheless, revenue for the quarter was impacted by reduced trading activity and lower realised prices due to Covid-19 and an unprecedented combination of oversupply and short-term demand destruction,” stated Coleman.

“Of course, most of the quarter was overshadowed by the growing threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has required us to take swift and decisive action to protect our workforce, communities and operations,” he said.

Coleman noted that the company had already made “tough but prudent decisions” to ensure the financial integrity of the business with spending cuts in 2020 of 50 percent.

“A targeted final investment decision on our Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 developments has been deferred from this year to next,” said Coleman.

“We made solid progress on our near-term growth projects during the quarter, taking FID on Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 in Senegal and the North West Shelf’s Greater Western Flank Phase 3, as well as making significant execution progress on Pyxis Hub and Julimar-Brunello Phase 2,” he added.

Anglo-Australian global commodities and energy company BHP with long-standing stakes in Western Australian LNG, natural gas and mining and with LNG-powered shipping plans said it planned to hire 1,500 additional people to support its workforce operating across Australia.

Dec 2 (LNGJ) - Woodside Petroleum said it signed new agreements with the Aboriginal groups in Western Australia linked to its expansion plans on the Burrup Peninsula for its Pluto and North West Shelf LNG facilities.

   “Woodside has operated on the Burrup for 35 years, and these agreements demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the successful co-existence of heritage and industry and support for long-term, positive outcomes for Aboriginal communities,” said the LNG producer.

   The first agreements were signed in 1998 with NWS LNG. “The updated commitment includes increased funding for a number of programs and benefits that are being delivered under the existing agreement. Additional support has also been made available for a number of capacity building and social investment programs,” added Woodside.

Woodside Petroleum, the liquefied natural gas plant operator in Western Australia, said it had decided to advance with the pipeline project, the Pluto-North West Shelf Interconnector, to connect the Pluto LNG and the North West Shelf Karratha Gas Plant and had entered into contractual arrangements for the construction.

Australian LNG operator Woodside Petroleum said the resource estimates of the Scarborough gas field offshore Western Australia, set to underpin its Pluto LNG plant expansion and the Burrup Peninsula Hub, have been increased by more than 50 percent.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of two LNG export plants in Western Australia, said it had successfully completed additional work at its Pluto liquefaction facility following scheduled maintenance and production had restarted.