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Woodside also appears to be pivoting its focus towards North America, confirming on Friday that it had lodged an expression of interest to develop a Canadian LNG project.

Browse LNG was to be Woodside’s biggest LNG development yet, but has been plagued by controversy over its proposed location at James Price Point on the northwest coast, coming under fire from environmentalists and some indigenous landowners.

The site is also home to the world’s largest dinosaur footprints and sacred Aboriginal sites known as “songlines”.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said any new development would have to provide significant costs savings, adding: “our customers are saying to us very clearly,’No longer can we pay for your expensive projects’.”

A floating LNG plant is considered to be the most likely alternative for Browse by many in the industry.

JP Morgan has estimated that a floating project would mean a 20 percent cost saving with capital expenditure of $35.5 billion versus $44.6 billion for the onshore development option.

Estimates of the cost of the onshore plant vary, but some analysts had said it could be as high as $48 billion.

Of seven LNG plants under construction in Australia, all of which are due to come online in 2014 or later, four have already announced cost blowouts ranging from 15 to 40 percent.

Woodside owns a 31 percent stake in Browse, which it is developing with partners Royal Dutch Shell, BP Plc , PetroChina, Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp.