Woodside agrees key terms with Pluto LNG customers

Woodside has agreed key commercial terms with North Asian customers for the supply of liquefied natural gas from its 100 per cent-owned Pluto gas field in Western Australia.
The terms cover combined sales of between 3.5 and 4 million tonnes of LNG a year for 15 years from the end of 2010, with an option to extend for a further five years.
Heads of agreements are due to be signed over the next few months with sales and purchase agreements to be negotiated by the end of 2006. These agreements will be conditional on a final investment decision by Woodside in 2007.
Woodside's Pluto LNG Director, Lucio Della Martina, said discussions were also progressing with potential customers in the United States for additional Pluto volumes.
The Pluto LNG development is based on the Pluto discovery in permit WA-350-P, 190km northwest of Karratha. The field was discovered in April this year.
Today's announcement and further increases in the oil price helped Woodside's shares advance 48 cents to $36.38.

Woodside also announced today that Tim Warren would retire as the Shell nominated director on its board, to be replaced by Russell Caplan.

Mr Caplan is currently a senior vice president on Shell's global downstream leadership team based in London.

Shell holds a 34.27 per cent stake in Woodside.