PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Woodside Petroleum has reported a 3% rise in production and a 12% rise in revenues for the fourth quarter ending December.

“Production and sales revenue increased compared with the third quarter of 2019 due to the strong performance from Greater Enfield,” said Woodside CEO Peter Coleman.

Production during the three months to December reached 25.7-million barrels of oil equivalent, with sales revenue reported at $1.3-billion.

For the full year, total production reached 89.6-million barrels of oil equivalent, which included 67.7-million barrels of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“We are targeting increased production in 2020 following the successful execution of our near-term growth projects,” Coleman added on Thursday, noting that a production target of between 97-million and 103-million barrels of oil equivalent has been set for the full year.

Subsequent to the quarter, Woodside made a final investment decision on the Sangomar field development Phase 1, offshore Senegal, which will deliver into the company’s Horizon II growth strategy.

The Sangomar development concept is a standalone floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility with 23 subsea wells and supporting subsea infrastructure, with the facility expected to have a production capacity of 100 000 barrels a day, and would process the oil before it is exported to market via tanks.

Phase 1 of the development will target an estimated 231-million barrels of oil equivalent of oil resources from the lower, less complex reservoirs, and an initial pilot phase in the upper reservoirs.

First oil is targeted for 2023.

“We also marked some outstanding achievements for the Scarborough development off Western Australia, with a 52% increase in the estimated gross contingent resource and a heads of agreement with BHP, which includes a tolling price for the processing of Scarborough gas through Pluto Train 2 and the existing Pluto facilities,” Coleman told shareholders.

He noted that for the Browse project, Woodside was ready to enter front-end engineering and design, subject to finalising the gas processing agreement, with the company also progressing key approvals, including the release of the environmental impact statement and environmental review documents for public comment.

“In another key step towards realising our vision for the Burrup Hub, we took a final investment decision for the pipeline component of the Pluto-KGP interconnector. We executed a long-term sale and purchase agreement with Uniper for the sale of LNG commencing in 2021, demonstrating strong customer support for our growth strategy.”