Australia\'s revenue up 27% on higher commodity prices

Australian oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum reported on Friday its third quarter sales revenues jumped 27 percent, driven predominantly by higher commodity prices. Woodside said revenue for the three months to September was 1. 31 billion U.S. dollars, up from 1.03 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2010. The company said output in the three months to September totaled 16.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), down 12 percent on the corresponding period of the previous year. Third quarter sales volumes were 16.7 MMboe, down 10 percent compared with a year ago, Woodside said production was lower because of outages and planned shutdowns but it said the target for full year production remained between 62 and 64 MMboe. Woodside said the first LNG (liquefied natural gas) cargo from its Pluto foundation project was expected in March 2012, while drilling and discussions with other resource owners continued for the Pluto expansion.