Woodside Petroleum Ltd has pushed out the final approval date for its mammoth Browse gas project but slightly brought forward plans to sign off on its smaller Scarborough project as it races to fill an anticipated global supply gap.

Woodside, Australia’s top independent gas producer, said on Thursday it is now targeting a final investment decision on the $20.5 billion Browse project in the first half of 2021 as it continues to wrangle with its partners. It had previously expected approval in late 2020.

However, Woodside also said it now aims to sign off on the $11 billion Scarborough gas project and Pluto LNG expansion in early 2020, as opposed to the first half of 2020.

“We feel very motivated and confident about the timetables that we’ve laid out,” Woodside Chief Financial Officer Sherry Duhe told Reuters in an interview.

“Our competition is global,” Duhe added. “The entire global LNG community has obviously seen that there’s a supply gap that’s sitting out there once we get past 2021, 2022, and we believe that our projects are perfectly timed.”

The faster timetable for the Scarborough project is dependent on Woodside reaching an agreement with its partner BHP Group on a price for processing gas from the field at the Pluto plant.

Source: reuters.com