Hub cost set to be revealed

Woodside Petroleum is just weeks away from telling the State and Federal governments how much it would have cost to build an LNG processing hub at James Price Point to justify why it axed the contentious plan.

The submission of the commerciality report, which will include the forecast development cost, is expected to be used by Woodside to advance its argument that the governments should agree to a variation of the Browse retention lease conditions, which stipulated that the LNG plant be built at James Price Point.

Six weeks ago Woodside confirmed widespread market speculation that the James Price Point development concept was not economically viable, and it has since all-but confirmed that the consortium partners would pursue floating LNG instead.

However, Woodside has so far refused to disclose how much the James Price Point development would have cost, with analysts suggesting figures from $45 billion to life-of-field estimates of as much as $80 billion.

Speaking at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Brisbane last week, Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman stopped short of confirming the commerciality report and retention variation request would be submitted by tomorrow.