MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Woodside WPL.AX Chief Executive Peter Coleman said efforts to improve productivity by partner Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) CVX.N at the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project gave him confidence the plant would start by mid-2017 and be within the $29 billion budget.
He said contractor Bechtel was bringing staff over from eastern Australia who had worked on the recent successful start-ups of LNG plants there, which also gave him comfort.
"That gives us some confidence in both schedule and cost," Coleman told analysts on a conference call.