Partners abandon Australia LNG venture

Australia

PERTH, March 23, 2016 – Operator Woodside Petroleum on Wednesday announced it would be shelving the Browse LNG project off Western Australia. The USD 40-billion venture, carried out in partnership with Shell, BP, Mitsubishi-Mitsui and PetroChina, called for the development of the offshore Torosa, Brecknock and Calliance fields using three floating LNG vessels.

“Woodside remains committed to the earliest commercial development of the world-class Browse resources and to FLNG as the preferred solution, but the economic environment is not supportive of a major LNG investment at this time,” a company statement read.

With the front-end engineering and design work completed, Woodside and its partners were targeting a final investment decision on the project by the second half of 2016. The Browse Basin fields, located at depths of some 750 m, are estimated to hold contingent resources of 436 bcm (15.4 tcf) of natural gas and 453 million barrels of condensates.