PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum has reported a near 26% increase in production during the September quarter, as capacity enhancements at its Pluto project took effect.

Completed capacity enhancements at Pluto resulted in current production rates exceeding the 4.3-million-tonne-a-year nameplate capacity by some 3%.

Production for the three months under review reached 25.3-million barrels of oil equivalent, which was up from the 20.1-million barrels of oil equivalent produced during the second quarter of the year.

Apart from higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes from Pluto, the increased production was also ascribed to higher condensate volumes from Pluto and higher oil volumes from Vincent, following a full quarter of production from the Phase 4 in-fill well.

Sales volumes for the quarter also increased by 23.6%, to 24.1-million barrels of oil equivalent, generating revenues of just over A$1-billion, which was up by 20.9% on the A$898-million revenue generated in the second quarter.

Woodside told shareholders that the higher sales revenues reflected higher LNG and condensate sales volumes, as well as higher oil sales volumes, which was partially offset by lower realised oil prices.

The company has now also revised its production outlook for the full 2015 from the original 86-million to 94-million barrels of oil equivalent, to between 88-million and 93-million barrels of oil equivalent.

The narrowing of the production range was owing to a range of factors, Woodside said, including some one-million barrels of oil equivalent additional production from Pluto, and an additional 1.3-million barrels of oil equivalent from the Vincent Phase 4 in-fill well.

Output of 1.25-million barrels of oil equivalent had also been removed from the books as the Canadian pipeline gas was not produced, owing to the delayed completion of two Liard wells.