PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas major Woodside has reported a 43% increase in sales revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with the previous corresponding period, and a 10% increase in production.

Woodside on Thursday reported that production during the three months to December had reached 24.1-million barrels of oil equivalent, as the Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project achieved a 99.7% reliability rate, and the Wheatstone LNG train 1 and train 2 continued to exceed expectations.

Sales revenue for the quarter under review was A$1.4-billion.

“A highlight of the quarter was the start-up of the Greater Western Flank Phase 2 project in October, six months ahead of schedule and A$630-million under total budget,” said Woodside CEO Peter Coleman.

“In addition to the outstanding results in delivering the Greater Western Flank Phase 2, we achieved significant milestones in the development of our next wave of projects, which will underpin Woodside’s future growth.”

The ASX-listed company awarded the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the proposed Pluto Train 2 project and completed FEED for the Pluto facilities and pipeline for a proposed Pluto-North West Shelf (NWS) interconnector connecting Pluto LNG and the NWS project’s Karratha gas plant.

Subsequent to the quarter, Woodside also awarded contracts for the FEED activities for its Scarborough gasfield project, and in Senegal, started the FEED activities for the proposed SNE field development Phase 1.

Furthermore, Woodside is also looking to link its Browse LNG project to the NWS project, having inked a preliminary agreement with the other NWS participants to process Browse gas through the NWS gas plant.

“We are converting the preliminary agreement signed in the fourth quarter of 2018 to a fully-termed, binding agreement for the processing of Browse gas through the NWS’s Karratha gas plant,” said Coleman.