Apache decision on Australia gas by October

Steve Farris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apache Corporation, attends the Reuters Energy Summit in Houston June 4, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apache Energy (APA.N) will decide by October to which liquefied natural gas plant it plans to send its gas produced offshore northwest Australia, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

"We are talking to two major LNG players in Australia, the Wheatstone project and the Pluto project," Steve Farris told the Reuters Energy Summit in Houston. "We will probably have to make a decision by October to see which one makes the most sense for us."

The Pluto LNG project, with the capacity to export 4.3 million tons per year (mtpa) of LNG, is run by Woodside Petroleum (WPL.AX) and is expected to begin production late 2010. The proposed 5 mtpa Wheatstone project is run by Chevron (CVX.N).

U.S.-based Apache is currently developing the Julimar and Brunello gas fields offshore northwest Australia which are expected to hold several trillion cubic feet of gas.

Woodside, 34 percent owned by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), last month said that gas purchases from Apache gas fields would be aimed at supporting a second production train at Pluto.

Farris said the company is also looking into possible supply to the Western Australia domestic gas market, which, despite low demand, may pay more for the gas than LNG.

"For price, it's the domestic market, for quantity it's the LNG market," he said.

(Reporting by Edward McAllister; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)