Woodside lets FEED contracts for Pluto LNG Trains 2, 3

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 12 -- Australian LNG operator Woodside Petroleum Ltd. awarded contracts for Trains 2 and 3 frontend engineering design for its Pluto project to Foster Wheeler, WorleyParsons, and KBR. The 4.3-million tonne/year Train 1 of the project is expected to be complete next year.

Total Woodside costs, including the dual contracts, for the FEED phase are $100-150 million (Aus.). The company has estimated final costs for the overall project at Karratha, on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia, at $12 billion.

Woodside said it chose to award dual FEED contracts to provide the “necessary due diligence” for the engineering, procurement, and construction management phase of Pluto Trains 2 and 3 in the “fastest time frame.” The company expects the FEED studies to be completed in second-half 2010.

Approved for development in July 2007, the project will process gas from Pluto and Xena gas fields, in the Carnarvon basin about 190 km northwest of Karratha. Pluto gas field is estimated to contain a total dry gas recoverable reserve volume of 4.4 tcf.

The project is underpinned by 15-year sales agreements with Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas, each of which holds a 5% interest in the project.