The news didn’t seem to affect the Woodside share price at the close of trade ($16.75), the stock putting on 5c for the day after initially falling 2.2% to $16.33 during the day.

Woodside said sales fell to $528.9 million from $620.9m for the same period last year. It also said output fell 9.2% to 14.1 million barrels of oil equivalent.

A Woodside spokesperson said: “The difference (in the revenue) is the fact that we’ve had a much stronger Australian dollar – US dollar exchange rate.”

“As a consequence the average realised liquids price that we get in Australian dollars is between 15% and 16% lower than in the March quarter of 2003.”

The result was roughly in line with market expectations, with the drop in oil production below some predictions.

Both of Woodside’s declining oil fields, Legendre and Laminaria, reported sales falls of 41% and 22% respectively, which in part were attributed to cyclone interruptions during the quarter.