Woodside Quarterly Revenue Dented by Storms, Rainfall

MELBOURNE, Australia--A decline in production thanks to bad weather and a build-up in inventory weighed on Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s (WPL.AU) first-quarter revenue, although the Australian energy firm stuck with its output target for the year.

Oil and gas revenue fell to US$895 million for the three months, a drop of 8.9% on US$982 million recorded a year earlier and an 11% slump quarter-over-quarter, the Perth-based company said Thursday.

Woodside's production facilities in Western Australia were struck by 21 days of tropical storms and heavy rainfall at liquefied-natural-gas operations during the quarter, which it said contributed to a fall in production to 21.4 million barrels of oil equivalent, a drop of about 10% from last year and from the previous quarter.

In January, the company flagged a fall in output to 84 million-90 million barrels in 2017, after lifting it 3% to 94.9 million last year, due to a decline in oil output and a drop in domestic natural gas as its equity stake in pipeline volumes from the North West Shelf project in Australia's west falls as planned.

Despite the adverse weather, Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said the North West Shelf gas operation achieved 98% reliability during the quarter and the Pluto LNG facilities' production was only about 5% lower than expected.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2017 20:15 ET (00:15 GMT)