Important Step For Woodside

Australian oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum Ltd expects that its Chinguetti development off the west of Mauritania of $US 600 million will provide about 12 per cent of its annual revenue and 11 per cent of its production in the three years from 2006.

Chief operating officer Keith Spence made the estimates yesterday after the Chinguetti joint venture partners announced the go-ahead for a development based on the oilfield found three years ago. Chinguetti would be the first production project operated by Woodside.
In Spence?s opinion, Chinguetti represented an important step in Woodside building its first production hub in Mauritania, and said the venturers would start a drilling program of up to 20 wells beginning in August.