Betsy Donaghey told a UBS Resources conference in Sydney that Woodside could be producing 120 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2009, up from the 56 million barrels it is forecast to produce this year.

Output will rise more than 14 million barrels next year when the Enfield field, off Western Australia’s North West Cape, Chinguetti field in West Africa and Victorian offshore Otway fields start producing.

Chinguetti may cost more than the estimated A$806 million and is likely to start pumping next March.

The other two fields are scheduled to be producing in the middle of next year with Enfield costing about A$1.48 billion.

Woodside’s exploration drilling is set to also nearly double from 14 to 23 wells in the next 12 months, taking the company’s oil exploration drilling budget to A$275m.

Thirteen of the wells will be in Australia, up from six this year, using 30% of the exploration budget.

An additional two will be added to the six currently in West Africa. Eighteen percent of the budget will pay for the eight-well program.

But the number of exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico will be static with two planned for next year.