LNG

Woodside Energy, the Australian operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, reported an increase in quarterly revenues due to higher realised prices and supported by record full-year production.

Woodside Energy, the operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants in Western Australia and other oil and gas assets from the US to Africa, said it had three main strategic goals in the years ahead to supply energy as current production is not enough and large new investments are needed to bring additional fields on stream.

April 14 (LNGJ) - Woodside Energy, the operator of two LNG export plants in Western Australia, has announced the start-up of the BP-operated Mad Dog Phase II project costing $9 billion from the Argos offshore facility in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. Woodside holds a 23.9 percent non-operated interest in Mad Dog through its acquisition of BHP Petroleum.

   Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said the production start-up from Mad Dog Phase II demonstrated the ongoing value being delivered by Woodside’s merger with BHP’s petroleum business in 2022. “Mad Dog is one of several low cost producing assets for Woodside in the region with significant expansion potential and in close proximity to infrastructure and attractive markets,” added O’Neill.

The liquefied natural gas export project proposed for the Timor Sea resources of the Greater Sunrise gas fields offshore northern Australia and the tiny nation of Timor-Leste is to be the subject of a concept selection programme after almost 20 years of delays.

The Greater Sunrise joint venture is majority controlled (56.56 percent) by the Timor-Leste national oil company, while Australian LNG producer Woodside Energy owns more than 33 percent and the balance of 10 percent is held by Japanese utility Osaka Gas.

Talks between Woodside, the Australian government and Timor-Este on the future of a Greater Sunrise LNG project have continued intermittently for years and have now reached a settlement point.

“The Sunrise joint venture will consider all of the key issues for delivering the gas, for processing and LNG sales, to Timor-Leste compared to delivering the gas to Australia,” explained the statement.

The Greater Sunrise gas fields are located about 150 kilometres (93 miles) off Timor-Leste and 450km northwest of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

“In parallel to the concept select program, the joint venture is progressing the negotiation of the new Production Sharing Contract, Petroleum Mining Code and associated agreements with the Timor-Leste and Australian Governments, which upon finalisation will provide the fiscal and regulatory certainty required for a development to proceed,” the joint statement concluded.

Resources available

The resources of the Sunrise and Troubadour gas fields that would be developed contain contingent resource (2C) of 5.3 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 226 million barrels of condensate.

Woodside Energy Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said the development of new technologies and growing demand for safe and reliable LNG meant it was “the right time to bring forward the concept selection” programme.

“It is important we continue to look at ways to develop the Greater Sunrise fields using the latest technologies by evaluating, for example, modular LNG, that did not exist in the past,” explained O’Neill.

“Against a backdrop of global geopolitical instability and constrained energy supply chains, there is an opportunity for the Sunrise Joint Venture to significantly advance this regionally important project,” she stated.

Long awaited

Antonio de Sousa,, the President and Chief Executive of Timor-Leste’s state energy company, Timor GAP, said he was pleased that all the efforts had contributed towards realising the “long-awaited goal” of developing Greater Sunrise.

“This path forward is a significant commitment to our stakeholders, to the aspirations of those who made sacrifices to achieve independence for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and to the future of our people and Timor-Leste,” stated De Sousa.

“It offers a clearer path to prosperity, equality, peace, stability and sustainability for current and future generations,” he added.

The Managing Director of Osaka Gas Australia, Yo Otsuka, said it was important to assess and compare the development concepts “from both technical and commercial points of view to select the best option” for the success of the Sunrise project.

Woodside Petroleum has joined to new politicised trend for energy companies to make political investment decisions after several years of intimidation by banks and environmental activists on climate change by shutting down a natural gas project in Myanmar citing reasons of human rights.

Woodside, the Australian LNG plant operator, has completed the sale of a 49 percent non-operating participating interest in the second Pluto LNG train under development to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), one of the world’s leading specialist energy infrastructure investors.

Woodside Petroleum said its Singapore-based trading unit signed a a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Germany utility and energy company RWE Supply & Trading GmbH for the supply of LNG from Woodside’s global portfolio for a term of seven years starting in 2025.

Woodside, the Australian energy company and LNG plant operator, said that its A-6 Development offshore Myanmar in southeast Asia has now moved from exploration and appraisal to the pre-front-end engineering design phase.

Woodside, the Australian LNG producer, has welcomed a decision by the Western Australian state government to withdraw its greenhouse-gas guidelines that caused consternation in the energy industry as Australian activists seek reduction levels almost double those agreed at the 2015 Paris climate-change conference.

Woodside, the Western Australian liquefied natural gas producer, said its Burrup Hub for LNG is making progress with plans for third-party participation in liquefaction and pipelines, LNG maritime fuel availability for big ore carriers headed for Asia and truck-loading for remote users in the Outback.