Woodside Petroleum Browse LNG Project Cancelled

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Perth, Australia). Woodside Petroleum (Perth, Australia)(ASX:WPL) has announced a decision to cancel the controversial Browse LNG Project at James Price Point, north of Broome in Western Australia. The company officially announced that the "development concept does not meet the company's commercial requirements for a positive final investment decision."

If the $45 billion ($AU 43 billion) project had been given the go ahead, it would have seen the construction of a 12 million metric ton per year LNG Production plant, an offshore gas processing platform, natural gas subsea pipelines, an LNG and condensate jetty, marine offloading facilities, and a 5,700 person accommodation village. The investment value of the construction workforce accommodation village alone was more than $1.05 billion ($AU 1 billion).

This is in addition to the first stage $126 million ($AU 120 million) camp that was to house more than 850 fly in/fly out construction workers. Woodside received planning approval from the Western Australia government for the camp a week ago. The project had been the centre of much debate with Aboriginal and environmental groups opposed to the project. The area around James Price Point is the traditional home of the Goolarabooloo people who have argued against the project from the beginning, claiming it would destroy links to land, culture and ancestors.

Environmental groups were against the project; saying Woodside's decision to shelve the project was a 'win for the Kimberley' and that if the project had gone ahead it would ruin the pristine wilderness that is the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
,br> Attention is now turning to the likelihood that the Browse Basin will now be developed entirely offshore utilising FLNG technology. Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the decision to scrap the plan for James Price Point was difficult but that he did believe that Browse will be developed.

Woodside will now commence evaluation of other development concepts to commercialise Browse resources. Floating LNG, a pipeline to existing LNG facilities in the Pilbara or even a smaller onshore option at James Price Point are all being considered by Woodside and the other Joint Venture Partners including Royal Dutch Shell (LSE:RDSA)(The Hague, Netherlands), BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP)(Melbourne, Australia), and BP plc (LSE:BP)(London, United Kingdom).

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