Progress on the Browse Basin FLNG project looks to be slipping slightly, although Australia’s Woodside Petroleum says it is still on course for FEED work to start by the end of this year.

Woodside’s chief executive and managing director, Peter Coleman, indicated that there has been some project slippage but said it was nothing serious. However he admitted that the original schedule was “aggressive” and told an industry briefing that the program may now slip slightly towards the end of the year.

“Browse continues to lead our development pipeline and remains on track for our front end engineering and design entry decision in the second half of 2014, while other infill and tie-back projects are progressing to plan,” Coleman said during Woodside’s first half results conference call.

However Coleman’s use of the phrase “FEED entry” was queried as to exactly what that might mean for the timing of the Browse FLNG development. Coleman responded: “On Browse with respect to the FEED decision, we’ve indicated to market now for about a year that we had a pretty aggressive FEED schedule.”

He continued: “We said we’d get there in the second half of 2014... We’re still on plan to do that, but we’re also recognising that it’s probably moving out towards the back end of that window rather than the front end.”

He went on to point out that part of the reason was the fact that there are five partners in the project, and that Woodside couldn’t speak for them all: “Remembering there’s five partners in this – we felt it prudent to show why Woodside was going to pre-commit to it and we couldn’t speak on behalf of some of the other houses in that regard,” he explained.

Woodside has indicated it will be seeking an FID on Browse LNG in the first half of 2015. Back in September last year the Browse LNG partners approved a floating LNG project as the basis of design to tap gross contingent resources (2C) of 14.9?Tcf of dry gas and 441.2 MMbbl of condensate in three fields (Brecknock, Calliance and Torosa), discovered between 1971 and 2000. They lie some 425 km (265 miles) offshore Western Australia in the Browse Basin, in water depths ranging from 350-700 m (1,148-2,296 ft).

The development partnership includes Woodside as operator, Shell, BP, Japan Australia LNG and PetroChina.