MELBOURNE, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum Ltd all but conceded on Friday that its plan to buy back $2.68billion of its shares from Royal Dutch Shell Plc isdoomed to fail, as shareholders met to vote on the plan.
Defeat of the buyback would deal a blow to oil giant Shell'sasset sale plans and leave Woodside, Australia's largest oil andgas company, the headache of dealing with an overhang weighingon its share price, as well as managing a cash horde.
Woodside Chairman Michael Chaney said the vote was likelyto be determind by votes that were mailed in ahead of themeeting, which showed only 71.3 percent support for the buyback.
"The resolution required 75 percent approval of all votescast in order to proceed and it looks like we shall fall shortof that," Chaney told shareholders in a speech released to theAustralian stock exchange.
(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin)
