Woodside profit down 39 pct in H1

LNG player Woodside said its first-half profit dropped 39 percent to US$679 million as a result of lower oil prices over the period.

The company’s production was at 42 MMboe, down 9.7 percent as compared to the first half in 2014.

The reduction was primarily due to the first major planned turnaround at Woodside’s Pluto LNG project which was completed within 25 days, ten days ahead of the original schedule, the company said in its results report.

Woodside’s operating revenue also dropped 28 percent to US$2.556 billion, mainly due to lower commodity prices and to a lesser extent reduced sales volumes, according to the report.

It kept its full-year production target unchanged at 86 to 94 MMboe.

North West Shelf LNG project

The Woodside-operated North West Shelf project in Western Australia delivered 122 cargoes of LNG in the first half, compared with 121 in the same period last year.

“LNG production impacts from an electrical incident at the Karratha gas plant in May were partially offset by no planned turnarounds during this period compared to 2014,” Woodside said.

The project’s pipeline gas sales of 39,403 TJ were lower due to customer demand. Condensate production of 2.7 MMbbl and LPG production of 39,711 t decreased due to the impacts of the electrical incident at the Karratha gas plant.

Pluto LNG

The Pluto LNG project located on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha delivered 28 cargoes of the chilled gas in the first half.

This amounts to 1.6 million tonnes of LNG, down from 2 million tonnes in the same period a year ago.

According to Woodside, the drop in Pluto’s production is attributed to a planned maintenance turnaround in Q2 and a precautionary shutdown in Q1 when a third-party semi-submersible drilling rig drifted near Pluto flowlines during a cyclone.

LNG sales revenue of $1,058 million was also down 9.4 percent when compared to the last year.

Pluto LNG, in which Woodside holds a 90 percent stake, completed its first major turnaround in 25 days, 10 days ahead of the original schedule.

The turnaround scope involved onshore plant activities to maintain the integrity of plant equipment, as well as minor debottlenecking and offshore work to support the Xena tie-in, Woodside said.

Pluto LNG requires turnarounds of this magnitude approximately every three years.

Based on the condition of key rotating equipment, the company is assessing if the next period can be extended to four years.

LNG World News Staff; Image: Woodside