Woodside raises full-year output forecast as sales advance 46%

Woodside raises full-year output forecast as sales advance 46%

JAMES PATON

PERTH, Australia (Bloomberg) -- Woodside Petroleum raised its output forecast after quarterly sales jumped 46% as it achieved higher prices for its LNG.

Sales climbed to $1.96 billion from $1.34 billion a year ago, Woodside said in a statement Oct. 16. That was in line with an estimate of $1.95 billion from UBS.

Production was 25.2 MMboe, compared with 21.9 million barrels a year earlier. UBS expected output of 23 MMbbl, it said in an Oct. 13 report. The company now expects to produce 93 to 95 MMbbl this year from its previous target of 89 to 94 MMbbl on stronger operational performance.

Increased revenue was “predominantly due to additional oil volumes sold primarily from Vincent and higher realized prices for Pluto LNG volumes sold in the period,” the company in the statement.

Higher prices at Woodside’s $13 billion (A$15 billion) Pluto LNG development in Western Australia have boosted sales, according to UBS. The oil producer earlier this year also agreed to sell more LNG from Pluto to Korea Gas and Chubu Electric Power Co.

Woodside is stepping up its search for global acquisitions after its $2.7 billion plan to buy back stock from Shell was blocked by shareholders, leaving Europe’s largest oil company with a larger, unwanted stake in the Australian energy company. Woodside’s bid to invest as much as $2.6 billion in an Israeli gas project collapsed in May.