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Woodside flags Pluto LNG expansion efficiencies

The West Australian - Australia, 20th June 2009, 6:00 WST

Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte yesterday flagged the savings expected from expansion of the Pluto liquefied natural gas project by highlighting a 10 per cent cut in operating costs at the North West Shelf after the completion of a fifth processing train.

Addressing investors at a UBS conference in Sydney, Mr Voelte said operating costs at the North West Shelf venture, where Woodside is operator and a one-sixth partner, had dropped from $29 million a year per million tonnes of LNG to $26 million since the completion of Train 5.

The latest train boosted the venture’s capacity by 4.4mtpa to 16.3mtpa, generating operating cost savings of $48.9 million from enhanced economies.

Mr Voelte did not address the implications for Pluto but has long emphasised his plan to accelerate development of a second and third train to maximise profits from the wholly owned Woodside project.

His plan is being threatened by a lack of extra gas and he used his address yesterday to again attack companies such as Chevron, which he claims sit on commercial gasfields that could underpin Pluto’s expansion.

“We believe if a gasfield is clearly commercially viable, it should be developed,” he said.

Chevron owns the Wheatstone gasfield, which lies next to the Pluto find and could underpin a big expansion of Woodside’s onshore Pluto processing plant.

PETER KLINGER