Cyclone Shuts About Half of Australian Oil Output

A cyclone off the west Australian coast has shut down almost half of the country's oil output since Sunday and prompted miner Rio Tinto to halt iron ore exports through one of its main ports.

CNBC.com

Oil and gas firms operating off Australia's northwest coast, including Woodside Petroleum, BHP Billiton, Santos and Apache, have in total shut off 218,200 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production -- about 45 percent of the country's total production.

But some output in the area is expected to resume by as early as Wednesday morning after Cyclone Dominic, which has been carrying wind gusts of 135 kilometers an hour, loses strength and moves on, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its Web site.

"Dominic is likely to weaken below cyclone intensity this evening or tonight," the bureau said.

The region is home to some of Australia's largest oil and gas projects, among them the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. It's also the site of Port Dampier, one of the world's largest iron ore loading terminals, with an annual capacity of about 140 million tons.

BHP said it shut down its key Stybarrow oilfield on Monday morning. Woodside has a 50-percent stake in the field, which had a production rate of 53,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the last quarter.

BHP has also suspended at its 8,000 bpd Griffin field.

Woodside has temporarily shut production at its Enfield and Vincent oilfields, which have a combined output of 78,000 bpd.

Production at the Woodside-operated North West Shelf LNG venture has also been disrupted with the shutdowns of the 52,000 bpd Cossack Pioneer oilfield and the Angel gas platform.

Santos said its 14,000 bpd Mutineer-Exeter project was shut in on Sunday afternoon, while Apache also suspended production at its Stag and Ocean Legendre oil fields that have a combined output of 13,200 bpd. Both firms expect operations to resume by Wednesday morning.

Apache said it has also evacuated non-essential personnel from the Varanus Island gas processing hub, but gas output has not been affected.

Rio Tinto said it expects to resume iron ore loading operations at Port Dampier on Wednesday. The port is the largest of Rio's export terminals in the region.

The cyclone is the third of the season, which normally runs from December to April. The previous cyclone, Billy, forced the shutdown of several oil and gas operations for nearly a week late in December.

Copyright 2009 Reuters. Click for restrictions.