Permit buy bolsters Pluto expansion plan

Woodside Petroleum has moved to bolster its expansion plans at the $13 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas project with a deal to take sole control of its four most significant recent gas discoveries.

The company today said it would buy out its US partner Hess Corporation's 50 per cent stake in the WA-404-P permit off the Karratha coast, giving it a 100 per cent stake in the recent Martell, Noblige, Larsen and Larsen Deep gas discoveries.

"The acquisition is consistent with Woodside's drive to obtain sufficient gas volumes to support potential expansions of the Pluto LNG Park," the company said.

Though Woodside is yet to release likely reserve estimates for the four discoveries, analysts believe they could total more than 2.5 trillion cubic feet, putting Woodside closer to achieving the additional reserves it needs to support a second production train at Pluto.

Woodside had previously been hoping to be able to sanction a second train at PLuto by the end of this year, but in August revealed that was unlikely to happen before next year due to moderate results from ongoing exploration.

It also then said slower than expected progress at Chevron's Gorgon project had alleviated concerns about retaining its construction workforce, giving it extra time to decide on the optimum expansion strategy for Pluto.

Buying Hess' interest in the permit also guarantees that gas from the permit will be processed at Pluto by eliminating any chance that Hess could instead opt to process its share of the gas at Chevron''s rival Wheatstone project.

Woodside has been in discussions with Hess for several months to secure a firm agreement to process gas from Hess' WA permits at Pluto, after last year being gazumped by Chevron to secure a deal for Apache's Julimar and Brunello gas fields.

Woodside did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, but said it would include an upfront cash payment at completion, plus further cash payments once certain production milestones from the permit are attained.

The completion date for the transaction is November 5.

The acquisition comes a week after Woodside made the embarrassing admission that newly erected flare towers at PLuto would have to be dismantled because they did not meet its stringent cyclone ratings.

Consequently, it is reviewing the project schedule and appears increasingly likely to miss its March quarter target for first gas exports from the venture.