In a report released today, the company attributed the decline in production due to the impact of tropical cyclones off the north-west coast of Australia.
Strong performance from the Stybarrow field, reinstatement of production from the Corallina field and the ramp up of Otway production only partially offset the production impact.
Production from the North West Shelf oil venture of 50,490 barrels per day (bbl) was lower than the previous quarter of 73,939bbl, due to the facilities being affected by tropical cyclones Nicholas and Ophelia.
An electrical fault at the North West Shelf's Karratha gas plant in early January caused a two-day production shutdown of the plant, temporarily affecting supplies of pipeline gas, condensate, LPG and LNG.
Compared to previous quarters, first quarter production was also negatively impacted by remedial work at Enfield and Mutineer-Exeter as well as the 2007 sale of non-core production assets Legendre and Chinguetti.
The company forecasts its 2008 production target to remain at 80-86 million barrels of oil.
Despite the negative production results, sales revenues were up due to higher commodity prices outweighing the slightly lower sales volume and a higher Australian to US exchange rate.
