wpl says has made best offer for gas for pluto, page-3

Interesting!!!! 5 partners?

HEADLINE: Woodside set on big drilling campaign
AUTHOR: Paul Garvey
Admiring the luck of Chevron, Woodside Petroleum is in talks with five parties on the
potential supply of third-party gas to Pluto and preparing a major campaign to drill about 20
exploration wells by end-2010.
Yesterday, Woodside’s arch-rival Chevron has announced its third West Australian gas
discovery, confirming its Achilles-1 exploration well had intersected a 100-metre gas
column. Its earlier success in August were Clio-2 and Kentish Knock-1 wells. In early
September, Chevron gave the nod on the development of its Gorgon liquefied natural gas
project. Its president of Asia-Pacific exploration and production Jim Blackwell said the
recent discovery would build on the gas supply ‘that underpins the projected 40-year life of
the Gorgon project’. The company is the operator and has 50 percent holding in the WA-
374-P licence that hosts Achilles; Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell each holds 25
percent. Furthermore, Chevron is proposing a standalone LNG development, Wheatstone.
Portfolio manager Tim Schroeders at Pengana Capital pointed out that the discovery is
another encouraging sign for the prospectivity of Carnarvon Basin, but he cautioned that
the exploration boom may give distinct advantages to projects there over rival coal seam
gas developments that have been planned for Queensland.