Woodside Petroleum announced yesterday that it was moving to abandon its African acreage in order to concentrate on liquefied natural gas (LNG) business.

Woodside has been frustrated in Kenya after the wells it sunk off the coast of Lamu early in the year turned out to be dry. Success in Libya has also been modest, and the company’s Mauritanian fields have proved to have problematic geology. Woodside also has a stake in the producing Ohanet natural gas venture in Algeria.

The Kenyan government had extended Woodside’s oil exploration contract by 16 months to July next year. But it told Kenta’s Business daily yesterday that the Australian explorer’s move would have no impact on oil exploration in Kenya.

“Woodside’s exit has no implications because there are four companies bigger than Woodside who are remaining here,” Energy Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike told the newspaper yesterday.

“They came in yesterday [Tuesday] and told me they are leaving and that they didn’t want to catch the ministry by surprise.”

Woodside had partnered with Queensland-based junior Global Petroleum. Their Pomboo-1 offshore well drilled in March failed to find hydrocarbons. The other partners in the block are UK company Dana Petroleum and Spain’s Repsol.

Woodside said it was considering a range of options for its African business, including direct sales or trading the assets with other companies for stakes in various projects, spinning it off into a separate company, or a direct sale of the assets.

Other Australian explorers active in Kenya include Gippsland Offshore Petroleum and its partner Pancontinental Oil & Gas, which recently completed a Falcon aerial geophysical survey of their onshore/offshore Lamu Basin block.

Pancontinental has also teamed up with Origin Energy in two Kenyan blocks.