Woodside reports record $1.58 bn profit

SYDNEY: Australian energy giant Woodside Petroleum on Monday booked a record $1.58 billion net annual profit thanks to higher prices but reported cost and time blowouts at its Pluto liquefied natural gas hub.

Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer said full-year net profit had risen 6.9 percent due to an "outstanding year" at its North-West Shelf operations, which had record production, cargo, revenue and profit.

Overall sales volumes were 10.5 percent lower than the previous year at 72.2 million barrels of oil "primarily due to the sale of Woodside's interest in the Otway Gas Project and oil field natural decline," the resources firm said.

But the output slump was offset by a 20.2 percent ($706 million) revenue boost "largely due to higher commodity prices and the positive conclusion of certain LNG pricing negotiations."

Woodside aims to be among the world's top LNG producers by 2020 and has a significant stake in Western Australia's burgeoning LNG industry, with its massive Pluto project estimated to hold 4.1 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.

Pluto was due to begin shipping gas in March but Woodside said the project was now on track to launch in August, with the first gas to flow the following month.

"The revised cost of the foundation Pluto LNG project is Aus$14 billion ($14.2). This represents a 6.9 percent increase to the project's 2009 Aus$13.1 billion estimate," Woodside added.

Its Browse project, thought to harbour 13.3 trillion cubic feet of dry gas and 360 million barrels of condensate, was tracking for a final investment decision by mid-2012, with engineering and design work underway.

The contentious Sunrise development, which has put Woodside at odds with the government of East Timor, made "significant progress" in 2010, the driller said, with the joint venture partners agreeing on a floating platform design.

"The concept is now being progressed with the Australian and Timor-Leste governments in accordance with international treaty obligations," it said.

Woodside's preference for gas from the Timor Sea's Greater Sunrise field to be processed at a floating offshore platform has angered Dili, who want a plant built onshore to benefit the tiny and impoverished nation.