PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas major Woodside Petroleum has flagged plans to accelerate the development of the Scarborough gas field through an expansion of the Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

Woodside in March acquired ExxonMobil’s interest in the Scarborough gas field, taking its interest in the project to 75%, with BHP holding the remaining interest.

“We now operate both the Scarborough offshore gas resource and the Pluto LNG onshore processing facility. It is our plan to accelerate the development of Scarborough through an expansion of Pluto LNG. Concept selections for both the offshore and onshore components of the project are targeted by the end of this year,” Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said.

The Pluto LNG project’s current onshore infrastructure consists of a single LNG processing train with a production rate of 4.9-million tonnes a year.

Coleman added that, in addition to completing the acquisition of ExxonMobil’s interest in Scarborough, Woodside also completed a A$2.5-billion entitlement offer, which would provide equity funding to support Woodside to deliver the Scarborough and North West Shelf Phase 1, and Browse project to targeted final investment decision.

Meanwhile, Woodside has reported an increase in production as the first train of the Wheatstone LNG project achieved steady state production.

Woodside produced 22.2-million barrels of oil equivalent during the quarter, up from the 21.9-million barrels of oil equivalent produced in the previous quarter, with revenue for the first quarter reaching A$1.16-billion.

“Output from Wheatstone underpinned an increase in LNG production in the first three months of this year, while revenue climbed 18% quarter-on-quarter,” said Coleman.

“Train 2 at Wheatstone is close to completion and is expected to start producing LNG this quarter. Once both LNG trains and the domestic gas facility are fully operational, Wheatstone will contribute more than 13-million barrels of oil equivalent of annual production.”