The participants in the Browse LNG project will not proceed with the development at this time given the current economic and market environment, operator Woodside said Wednesday.

PERTH, Australia — The participants in the Browse LNG project will not proceed with the development at this time given the current economic and market environment, operator Woodside said Wednesday.

The decision was taken following completion of front-end engineering and design (FEED) work. Since FEED entry, Woodside has been focused on delivering targeted cost savings and value enhancements. While significant progress was made to improve project value, this has been offset by an extremely challenging external environment, the company said in a statement.

“The decision represents a disciplined approach to large-scale capital investment and is consistent with our requirements for a development concept to be commercially robust across a range of scenarios,” Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said. “Woodside remains committed to the earliest commercial development of the world-class Browse resources and to FLNG as the preferred solution, but the economic environment is not supportive of a major LNG investment at this time. Accordingly, we will use the additional time to pursue further capital efficiencies for Browse.”

Woodside will now work with the Browse joint venture participants to prepare a new work program and budget to progress development activities.

The company intends to leverage the work delivered to date, which includes the involvement of the State Government to agree key principles for domestic gas and supply chain arrangements and the State and Commonwealth Governments to manage maritime boundary changes.

Woodside remains focused on satisfying its work program commitments under the Browse retention leases. The Browse retention leases were renewed in 2015 and the current term of the leases ends in mid-2020.

Woodside’s participating interest in the Browse resources is 30.6%.

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