Woodside warns of Karratha cargo delays

Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer may have to delay deliveries of liquefied natural gas cargoes, after an electrical outage last week halted output at its Karratha gas plant in Western Australia.

LNG operations at Karratha restarted on Sunday after they were halted, and production is being progressively ramped up. They are working closely with customers to agree to a revised delivery schedule and minimise any impact. The Karratha gas plant is part of the North West Shelf venture, the country's largest LNG project, and provides over 60% of the state's gas supply. Woodside's Karratha plant produces about 12 million tonnes of LNG each year and delivers about 50 LNG cargoes each quarter to customers in Japan, South Korea and China. Shares in Woodside were down 0.6% at A$51.05 by 0043 GMT, compared with a 0.3% decline in the broader S&P/ASX 200 index. The six equal partners in the North West Shelf joint venture are Woodside, BHP Billiton, Chevron, BP, and Japan Australia LNG (MiMi) Pty - a joint venture of Mitsubishi and Mitsui & Company and Shell, which also holds a 34% stake in Woodside itself.
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