Australia's largest gas producer, Woodside, Thursday said LNG production from its three facilities rose 11% year on year in the January-March quarter, and maintained its 2019 production guidance.
Woodside expects total production of 88 million-94 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2019. LNG production is expected to make up 70 million-73 million boe of that.
Woodside said the three facilities, North West Shelf, Pluto, and Wheatstone saw a combined LNG production rate of 78,816 mt a day in the March quarter, which was up 11% year on year following Wheatstone's ramp-up but down 12% from the October-December quarter.
The three Western Australian facilities operated at a combined annualized rate of 28.77 million mt/year of LNG compared with their combined nameplate capacity of 30.7 million mt/year.
The largest of the three, the 16.9 million mt/year capacity North West Shelf -- which was affected by Cyclone Veronica -- suffered the sharpest fall. It operated at 42,096 mt/day (15.37 million mt/year) during the three months, which was down 9% on the year.
Woodside said Pluto and Wheatstone were hit by unplanned incidents in February. The 4.9 million mt/year capacity Pluto LNG produced at a rate of 13,330 mt/day (or 4.89 million mt/year), falling 2% year on year. LNG production at the 16.9 million mt/year Wheatstone project more than doubled to 23,390 mt/day (8.54 million mt/year).
The company's own share of production at NWS, Pluto and Wheatstone was 617,164 mt, 1.08 million mt and 271,826 mt, respectively. It owns a 16.67% stake in NWS, 90% of Pluto and 13% of Wheatstone.
Woodside largely enjoyed higher realized LNG prices. NWS prices rose 21% on year to $9.40/MMBtu, Pluto rose 14% on-year to $10.30/MMBtu and Wheatstone rose 34% on-year to $11.90/MMBtu.
RBC expected NWS to average $8.3/MMBtu, Pluto at $9.3/MMBtu and Wheatstone at $9.3/MMBtu, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Wilson said.
"While we had anticipated pricing would defy a weak spot market, the strength of price realization speaks to the defensiveness of the medium- and long-term contracts," Wilson said.
NWS condensate production ran at 78,209 b/d, down 1% year on year and 11% quarter on quarter; Pluto's was at 8,960 b/d, down 2% year on year and 7% quarter on quarter; and Wheatstone's was 29,451 b/d, down 11% from the October-December quarter.
Oil production from Woodside's Western Australia assets was much lower in the January-March quarter as the Nganhurra floating production, storage and offloading vessel at Enfield Oil ceased production in November while Vincent Oil is suspended until mid-2019 in accordance with its Greater Enfield project schedule.
Okha oil was the only producing asset at a rate of 11,651 b/d (4.25 million barrels/year), which is down 9% on the year. (April 18, 2019)
AUSTRALIA - LNG - Production