Australia producer Woodside eyes LNG boost

Sydney

WOODSIDE Petroleum Ltd may look to funnel gas from the Scarborough field off Western Australia to one of its existing liquefied natural gas plants after agreeing to a US$400 million deal to buy half of BHP Billiton Ltd's stake in the remote offshore resource.

Woodside's purchase on Monday of a stake in Scarborough means the gas could eventually be piped to either its Pluto or North West Shelf onshore plants, according to Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C Bernstein & Co.

A plan by BHP and Exxon Mobil Corp to use a floating LNG plant to develop gas from the Scarborough field has stalled in the past few years due to its location and low oil prices. "Clearly they are signalling they might bring this gas onshore and the Pluto option is the obvious one," Mr Beveridge said.…