“The start-up sequence for resuming production at the Otway gas plant is underway and gas export is expected to recommence in early February,” Origin said in its quarterly report on Friday.

The plant has been shut down since September 24 while Woodside addressed commissioning issues, including a leak in the Mono-Ethylene-Glycol pipeline.

It had been online for one week, producing 198 terajoules of gas.

In other company news, Origin also reported that recent floods in central Queensland had restricted road access to some of its fields in the Bowen and Surat basins.

However, the company said gas production had not been affected, with access for routine work being via helicopter.

“Oil production in some fields in the Surat Basin has been temporarily shut-in as wellhead storage facilities cannot be accessed,” Origin said.

“Provided there is no further significant rain, these facilities are expected to be accessible in early February.”

In addition, Origin reported small rise in quarterly gas and oil production in the December quarter, as natural field decline capped its output.

Production rose 2.2% to 23.3 petajoules for the period, up slightly from 23.9 PJ in the same quarter of 2006.

But December quarter production was also 3% down from the September quarter largely due to a 16% fall in Cooper Basin production.

The fall in Cooper Basin output reflected natural reservoir decline, lower contractual volumes, seasonal factors and a scheduled outage in late December 2007.

That added to continuing declines in conventional production from the Perth, Surat and Bowen basins.

“These declines were largely offset by a 22 per cent increase in coal seam gas (CSG) production,” Origin said.