But the company said that first oil from Mauritania’s Chinguetti project and last year’s purchase of Gulf of Mexico-focused Gryphon Exploration has helped offset this lost production, so that the figure was still 1.3% higher than the previous corresponding period in 2005.

First quarter sales volume of 13.7 million barrels of oil equivalent was also 4.2% lower than the previous corresponding period and 7.2% lower than the previous quarter, due to the timing of uplifts, Woodside said.

These lower sales volumes also resulted in 5.1% reduced revenue of $A719.9 million compared with the previous quarter, Woodside said. But high oil prices have meant this figure was still 25.2% higher than the previous corresponding period in 2005.

Woodside said the start-up of Chinguetti meant the company now has production from three continents.

Chinguetti production was achieved less than 21 months after the final investment decision and less than five years after initial discovery.

In Australia, the Enfield oil project in the Exmouth Sub-Basin was progressing well, Woodside said.

The company said start-up was now expected either late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter – well ahead of the original fourth quarter target.

The Otway gas project is also expected to come online early, with a forecast start-up in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Woodside said first oil from the $1 billion Vincent oil project offshore North West Cape in Western Australia was planned for 2008, with initial production of about 100,000 bbls of oil per day.

The company has also established hedging arrangements at Vincent, which was approved last month, to protect itself against a drop in global oil prices during the pricing of the deal in the first phase.

Also during the quarter, the North West Shelf Venture signed a heads of agreement to supply 1.2 to 1.4 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per annum to Japan’s Chugoku Electric.

Woodside also said the Pluto-3 appraisal well confirmed expectations, after it intersected a gross hydrocarbon column of 102m and flowed at a maximum rate of 31.7 million cubic feet per day. The company plans to spud the Pluto-4 well in the second quarter.

The company has signed a heads of agreement to provide Tokyo Gas and Kansai Electric with a combined volume of 3.25-3.75 million tonnes of LNG per annum from Pluto.