PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas major Woodside has seen a 20% decline in sales revenue during the quarter ended March, compared with the previous quarter, and reported a 6.8% decline in production.
Woodside told shareholders on Wednesday that production volumes during the quarter were affected by lower liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes from the Pluto operation, in the Carnarvon basin, and lower oil volumes, effected by a recent cyclone.
During the cyclone, a submersible drilling rig, under contract to another party, drifted near Pluto flowlines and resulted in a six day precautionary production shut-in.
Woodside noted that the lower production was partially offset by increased LNG volumes from the North West Shelf operation, north-west of Karratha, following planned maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Production for the quarter under review reached 21.8-million barrels oil equivalent, compared with the 23.4-million barrels oil equivalent delivered in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Sales revenue for the period under review reached $1.4-billion on the sale of 23.9-million barrels of oil equivalent. This was down 20.1% on the previous quarter, and 15.9% on the previous corresponding period.
In December last year, Woodside entered into a $2.75-billion transaction to acquire Apache Corporation’s Wheatstone LNG and Balnaves oil interest, as well as the Kitimat LNG project in Canada.
The transactions closed in April this year and resulted in Woodside owning a 13% share in the Wheatstone project, a 65% interest in the Julimar-Brunello upstream gas development, a 65% interest in the Balnaves oil project and a 50% share in the Kitimat project.
Subsequent to the closing of the Apache asset purchase, Woodside expected to produce between 86-million and 94-million barrels of oil equivalent during 2015.