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PERTH, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd said on Friday changes to its Browse gas field retention leasethat would allow it to pursue a wider range of developmentoptions have been approved.
The company decided in April to shelve a plan to develop thegas field via a $45 billion onshore plant and said it wouldinstead consider a variety of other options, such as a floatingliquefied natural gas (LNG) plant or a smaller onshoreplant.
"The joint venture participants still need to actuallychoose a final concept for the development," Laura Lunt,Woodside spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.
The variation to the Browse retention leases, granted by thestate of Western Australia, will apply to the end of 2014.
Woodside and its joint venture partners in the developmentare widely expected to opt for a floating LNG plant. Analystsestimate that choosing to use floating LNG technology would meana cost savings of 20 percent.
Global energy firms have invested $140 billion into six LNGplants in just two and half years as Australia ramps upproduction on its way to becoming the world's largest exporterof the clean burning energy source.
But Australia's LNG sector has seen investor interest cooldue to cost overruns and with competition from North America,where new supplies of gas have been exploited from shale.
Earlier this year, Woodside chief executive Peter Colemansaid a floating facility has "the potential to commercializesthe Browse resources in the earliest possible time frame."
Woodside also signed a technology agreement to developBrowse using technology owned by Royal Dutch Shell.
Shell, the second-largest shareholder in Browse and a 24percent owner of Woodside, is considered to be the globalfrontrunner in developing floating LNG technology and haslobbied to use it to develop the Browse gas field.
Other joint venture partners include BP Plc,PetroChina, Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp.
