Dear Woodside Shareholder:

Last year your company was saved from takeover by Shell after a successful appeal to the Federal Government that such a takeover would not be in national interest.

Most Australians agreed.

Australians were convinced that Woodside in Australian ownership would be more likely than a foreign company to develop Australian resources in a way that would maximise benefits to Australia.

The development of the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea is the first test of this theory for Woodside.

There are two options for development of Sunrise field, shared by Australia and East Timor.

Option 1: to bring the gas onshore at Darwin and develop downstream gas industries in Australia and even pipe gas to Southern Australia to support growing demand for gas.

Option 2: to build a floating LNG plant at the wellhead in the ocean and export the LNG to the USA without ever landing in Australia.

Your company wants Option 2, a floating LNG plant in the Timor Sea, but we believe Option 1 must be considered properly, in Australia's national interest.

The difference in benefit has been analysed by ACIL Consulting and the Centre for International Economics. They found that the onshore project (Option 1) provided the following economic benefit to Australia:

* Adding $15 billion over twenty years for Australia's economic wealth

* An extra 4,400 jobs for Australians.

* Extra gas to ensure certainty of supply to southern and eastern Australia

Your company's management must consider shareholder value and is doing so. But shareholder value is also measured by a company's reputation and its long-term sustainability.

Phillips Petroleum, one of the Sunrise joint developers (along with Woodside, Shell and Osaka Gas) says there are strong commercial benefits and strong markets for onshore gas.

The Northern Territory Government believes that further consideration of the onshore project recently put forward by Phillips will fulfill both the commercial needs of shareholders, management's duties to its shareholders and Australia's national interest.

Woodside was instrumental in developing Australia's NW shelf to the lasting benefit of this nation. The company now has the opportunity to develop the next major gas province in Australia. It can play a nation-building role in Australia's north, in the interest of shareholders and all Australians.

Please look at the NT Government website at www.nt.gov.au for further information. And if you are concerned about this issue please write to Woodside's CEO John Akehurst at 1 Adelaide Terrace, Perth, 6000, and suggest that Woodside, an Australian company, should act in Australia's interest and bring our gas onshore."

The letter was signed "Team NT" and listed NT political figures of all parties, specifically Clare Martin, Dennis Burke, Dave Malone and other business and community leaders in the Territory and elsewhere.

The letter urged readers to register their interest in the issue by emailing their name and contact details to [email protected] or writing to the Woodside Letter, Office of Territory Development, GPO Box 4000, Darwin, N.T.