* NW Shelf LNG close to agreeing tariff for Browse gas
* LNG market seen short on supply by 2021, Woodside says
* Woodside aims to slash Senegal $3 bln oil project cost
* Woodside Q1 revenue up 30 pct(Recasts with CEO comments on Browse, LNG, Senegal)
By Sonali Paul
April 18 (Reuters) - The long-delayed Browse gas project offWestern Australia has gained key support, with partners in theNorth West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant aiming toagree on a tariff by end-June to handle Browse gas, WoodsidePetroleum's chief executive said on Wednesday.
Browse is seen as a key source of growth for Woodside buthas been stuck on the drawing board for years as plans foronshore and floating LNG development estimated at $30 billion to$45 billion were scrapped.
The plan now is to develop the giant gas field to feed theNorth West Shelf plant, Australia's biggest LNG plant, when itscurrent gas source runs dry in the 2020s.
"We've picked up momentum over the last couple of monthsaround Browse and some of it is now a realisation, in particularon behalf of the North West Shelf partners, that Browse needs tobe the anchor tenant for the North West Shelf over the next 25years," Woodside CEO Peter Coleman told Reuters.
The NW Shelf joint venture partners "are very much alignednow" on completing tariff talks "by the end of the secondquarter", he said.
Woodside's North West Shelf partners are BP, BHPBilliton, Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shelland Japan's Mitusbishi Corp and Mitsui & Co.
Once the tariff is set, Woodside and its Browse partners -most of which overlap with stakeholders in the North West Shelf- will be in a stronger position to move ahead with planning howto develop the field. A final investment decision could comeearlier than the current target of 2021.
"The opportunity for us is to bring that forward to be ableto meet market -- general consensus now says the market's goingto be short by 2021," Coleman said.
Just two years ago, the market had been expected to remainin oversupply until around 2023, but that has changed followinga sharp jump in gas demand in China.
Woodside is also pushing ahead with an oil project offSenegal, where its partners are Cairn Energy and FAR Ltd, while a dispute with FAR over Woodside's acquisitionof a 40 percent stake in the project enters arbitration.
Cairn and FAR have said the first phase of the SNEdevelopment is expected to cost around $3 billion, howeverWoodside is looking to cut that cost by "quite a lot", Colemansaid.
It has invited offers for a floating production storage andoffloading vessel (FPSO) and other equipment for the project.
Coleman spoke to Reuters after Woodside reported a 30percent rise in first-quarter revenue to $1.17 billion from ayear earlier on increased output and higher LNG prices.
Output rose to 22.2 million barrels of oil equivalent(mmboe) from 21.4 mmboe in the March quarter last year, helpedby a ramp-up in production at the Wheatstone LNG project, run byChevron, in Western Australia.
(Reporting by Sonali Paul; additional reporting By Susan Mathewin Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)
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