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Gold/Mining/Energy : LNG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (573)	12/6/2005 8:06:34 AM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

INTERVIEW: Australia's Woodside Finds Pluto Customers By Stephen Bell Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Tuesday December 6, 4:45 PM sg.biz.yahoo.com PERTH (Dow Jones)--Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) said Tuesday that it has taken a "critical" step in developing its A$5 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas venture after reaching commercial terms with North Asian buyers. Lucio Della Martina, Woodside's Pluto LNG director, declined to comment on the value of the deal, which analysts believe is worth more than A$20 billion over 15 years. "Is this a contract? No, it is not," Della Martina told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. "But to get to that final contract, this is the first critical step," he said, adding that he will be "disappointed" if Woodside has not secured a formal heads of agreement with one of its North Asian customers by year end. Woodside said that the terms cover combined sales of up to four million metric tons of LNG a year for 15 years from late 2010, with an option to extend for a further five years. Analysts say that Japan and South Korea are the most likely buyers of Pluto's gas, making it the latest example of an Australian LNG project overlooking China for higher priced deals elsewhere in Asia. Della Martina declined to comment on individual countries. "The North Asian market has laid the foundations for the Pluto project and the additional volumes will be targeted to the U.S.," he said, adding that Woodside is pursuing options on "both sides of (the U.S.) coastline." The company aims to make a final investment decision on Pluto in 2007. "This is encouraging and suggests that the project is moving forward," said UBS energy analyst Gordon Ramsay, referring to the latest development. However, he warned that Woodside faces a "tight timetable" to bring Pluto on line by late 2010, amid a shortage of skilled labor and rising construction costs in the booming oil and gas sector. Pluto Competing With Chevron's Gorgon Field Perth-based Woodside unveiled its development proposal for Pluto in August, just four months after the field was discovered. It aims to produce up to seven million tons per annum of LNG from Pluto, which lies 190 kilometers off the coast near the Woodside-operated North West Shelf venture, which recently approved a A$2 billion expansion. Woodside owns 100% of Pluto - with estimated resources of at least 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas - as opposed to a one-sixth share of the Shelf. "With 100% equity they are driving their own agenda and marketing it aggressively," said Macquarie Equities analyst Andrew Blakely, who estimates that Pluto is worth A$3.80 per share to Woodside. Shares in Woodside closed up 1.3% at A$36.38 Tuesday, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.2%. Pluto is competing for Asian LNG sales with Chevron Corp.'s (CVX) A$11 billion Gorgon venture, which also aims to start exports in 2010. Last month Chevron revealed that it has sold A$18 billion of Gorgon's LNG to Japan, after failing to agree on terms with potential Chinese customers. Woodside chief executive Don Voelte has made no secret of the fact that China's asking price for LNG is significantly lower than prices available elsewhere in Asia, or in the U.S. Woodside told analysts last month that it sees an LNG supply shortfall in Asia developing in 2008-2013.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (573)	12/22/2005 1:33:29 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 919

Catbird Seat forbes.com Australia's Woodside Petroleum has big LNG plans. If China balks, it has other options.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (573)	5/25/2006 3:15:35 PM
From: Dennis Roth	Respond to of 919

Woodside May Pass BP by 2010 as LNG Capacity Operator (Update1) bloomberg.com May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, said it may overtake BP Plc by 2010 as the world's second-largest non-government-owned operator of liquefied natural gas output capacity. Plants run by Woodside may produce about 23 million metric tons in 2010 from 11.9 million in 2005, expanding to about 45 million in 2015, the Perth-based company said today in a presentation filed to the Australian Stock Exchange. BP is set to expand to about 21 million tons in 2010 and about 28 million in 2015, according to a bar chart in the presentation. The A$19 billion ($14 billion) Woodside-operated North West Shelf venture is expanding to 16.3 million tons by 2008, while the company plans to start its Pluto LNG project in 2010. Its Browse and Sunrise LNG projects, also in Australia, are due to start by the middle of next decade. If those proceed, LNG output may account for almost 70 percent of Woodside's output by 2015, up from 29 percent last year, estimates JPMorgan Chase & Co. ``For investors, this makes Woodside a play on the LNG market,'' said Mark Greenwood, a Sydney-based oil and gas analyst at JPMorgan. He estimates Woodside's total output may rise to 200 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2015, up from 59.7 million last year. Shares Rise Shares in Woodside, which have jumped 26 percent in the past six months, rose as much as 83 cents, or 2 percent, to A$42.48 on the exchange. They were at A$42.30 at 1:38 p.m. Sydney time. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Woodside's 34 percent shareholder, is the world's largest non-government-owned operator of LNG capacity. Woodside's equity share of LNG production is forecast to rise to as much as 19 million tons in 2015, according to the presentation by Chief Executive Officer Don Voelte to North American investors in New York yesterday. Woodside also said it selected a group comprising Foster Wheeler Corp. and WorleyParsons Ltd. to carry out early engineering work on the proposed Pluto project, which Western Australia's government estimates may cost at least A$5 billion. The Foster Wheeler WorleyParsons group will carry out onshore studies for an LNG plant with a capacity of between 5 million and 7 million metric tons a year, in advance of an expected decision to formally start engineering and design work in the second half, said Hannah Fitzhardinge, a spokeswoman for Perth-based Woodside. It was competing against Bechtel Group Inc. for the work, she said. The Foster Wheeler WorleyParsons group will use Shell Global Solutions technology to build almost a copy of a unit being constructed at the North West Shelf venture, Fitzhardinge said. Bechtel had proposed to use technology from ConocoPhillips to build two smaller production units. Samsung Ships Woodside has signed an accord with Samsung Heavy Industries Co. giving the LNG producer options on as many as four new LNG ships to deliver Pluto gas starting in 2010, it said in the presentation. The ship sizes range from 145,000 to 217,000 cubic meters, suited for trips to the Japanese and U.S. West Coast markets, and would be built at Koje Island, South Korea, Rob Millhouse, a Woodside spokesman, said in an e-mail. LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by tanker to destinations not connected by pipeline. On arrival it is converted back to gaseous form for delivery to users such as power stations. To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: May 23, 2006 00:17 EDT