Australia’s Woodside starts sending Pluto gas to NW Shelf LNG plant

The logo for Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s top independent oil and gas company, adorns a promotional poster on display at a briefing for investors in Sydney, Australia, May 23, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray/File PhotoRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comMELBOURNE, March 31 (Reuters) – Australia’s Woodside Petroleum (WPL.AX) said on Thursday it has started sending gas from its Pluto offshore field to the North West Shelf project’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, allowing the company to cash in on soaring global LNG prices.The gas is flowing through a 3.2-kilometre (2-mile) pipeline Woodside built to connect its Pluto LNG plant with the North West Shelf project’s Karratha gas plant (KGP), also operated by Woodside.The interconnector gives Woodside, Australia’s top independent gas producer, an additional outlet for gas from the Pluto field while also helping to fill spare capacity at the Karratha gas plant.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com”The processing of gas from the offshore Pluto fields through Karratha gas plant enables Woodside to deliver additional LNG cargoes into the international gas market,” Woodside Chief Executive Officer Meg O’Neill said in a statement.The Karratha plant needs new sources of gas to fill its 16.9 million tonnes a year capacity as the original fields in the North West Shelf project, Australia’s oldest and largest LNG project, are drying up.Gas from the Pluto field is the first to go into the Karratha plant from outside the North West Shelf venture’s original sources. Woodside will pay a tolling fee to the North West Shelf joint venture to process its Pluto gas.Woodside’s partners in the North West Shelf venture are units of BHP Group (BHP.AX), , BP Plc (BP.L), Chevron Corp (CVX.N), Shell Plc (SHEL.L) and Japan’s Mitsui & Co (8031.T) and Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T).Woodside hopes other companies with gas assets off northwest Australia will eventually use the Pluto-to-Karratha interconnector to help keep the Karratha LNG plant full.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Subhranshu SahuOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.