In a market release today, Woodside said 2006 production had been revised to 72 million barrels, down from the previous estimate of 76 million bbl.

The company pointed out, however, this was still a 21% increase compared with 2005 production of 59.7 million bbl.

“Despite the lowering of the 2006 production growth estimate, it is 21% higher than 2005 and the company’s growth outlook over the next few years remains strong,” Woodside chief executive and managing director Don Voelte said.

“Most, if not all, of the impact is from delays in start-up or ramp-up of new developments or deferral in production due to significant weather events.”

Voelte described the production revision as disappointing, adding that “accountability lies with our management team”.

“We had expected that our weaker production from Chinguetti and a later start-up of our Otway project would have been mitigated by our Enfield oil project in Western Australia coming online in late May-early June,” he said.

“However, the breakage of a winch wire during mooring of the floating production vessel a few days before planned start-up has caused us to sail the vessel to Singapore for repairs.”

Initial production from Enfield is now expected in the third quarter, still ahead of original fourth quarter production schedule.

The company hopes to lift production at Chinguetti with the drilling of up to three new production wells in the coming months.

Delays at Otway were due to construction of the onshore gas plant falling behind schedule. Voelte said the company was working with key contractors to ensure Otway gas deliveries remained in line with customer requirements.

The company also cited the Western Australian cyclone season as affecting production on the North West Shelf while Hurricane Katrina was also said to have caused development delays due to abnormally high demand for oil and gas services following the hurricane.