(Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd <WPL.AX>, Australia's top independent gas producer, said on Monday it would invest in a pipeline for the Pluto-North West Shelf (NWS) Interconnector, enabling the optimisation of gas processing from its offshore fields. The Interconnector will join Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and the NWS Project's Karratha Gas Plant (KGP) in Western Australia, and is the first component of the infrastructure needed to transport gas between the two facilities.
Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the Pluto-NWS Interconnector was a key component of the proposed Burrup Hub and would provide opportunities to take advantage of future excess capacity at KGP.
The regional LNG Burrup Hub in Western Australia is aiming at proposed development of some 20 to 25 trillion cubic feet of gross dry gas resources from Scarborough, Browse and Pluto projects.
Woodside has entered into contractual arrangements with DDG Operations Pty Ltd for the construction, operation and maintenance of the pipeline for the Interconnector, which is targeted to start operations in the first half of 2022.
Last week, Woodside raised its estimate for dry gas reserves at its Scarborough project and had last month pushed out the final approval date for its mammoth Browse gas project as it races to fill an anticipated global supply gap.
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Shailesh Kuber)
