Woodside Petroleum seems to be making progress with its stalled Sunrise project, saying its new chief executive Peter Coleman has held constructive talks with the East Timor government.

The planned, multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has been held up for several years because the East Timor government wants a processing plant for Sunrise built on its shores but Woodside prefers a floating plant.

Previous chief executive Don Voelte in April said the East Timor government had ignored requests for talks on Sunrise and indicated that East Timor Secretary of State Agio Pereira was the main impediment.

However, the oil and gas producer on Friday said Mr Coleman had recently visited the south east Asian state and meetings had been positive.

“Woodside continues to build on engagement with both the Timor-Leste and Australian governments,” the company said in its third quarter report on Friday.

The report showed Woodside boosted revenues in the three months to September 30 by 27 per cent to $US1.313 billion ($A1.29 billion) compared to the same period last year, as higher commodity prices offset lower production volumes.

Production totalled 16.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), down 12 per cent on the September 2010 quarter due to outages and planned shutdowns at the North West Shelf in Western Australia.

The drop in output was due also to lower production volumes at the Enfield and Vincent oil projects off WA, and at its Laminaria-Corallina oil operation in the Timor Sea.

This was partially offset by higher output at the Stybarrow oil project in WA and domestic pipeline production volumes.

The company reiterated its full year production forecast of between 62 and 64 MMboe, as well as its March 2012 target for first LNG production at its Pluto project in WA.

Progress was made during the quarter at the contentious Browse LNG project in WA, with the continuation of front-end engineering and design studies along with work to secure environmental approvals.

On Friday, an anti-Browse gas hub protester tied himself to a 30-metre communications tower near the project in a bid to stop survey work.

A Woodside spokesman said vehicle access to the site had been blocked, but employees were able to walk there, so work was continuing as normal.

A final sign-off for the project by Woodside and its joint venture partners is expected by the middle of next year.

Shares in the Perth-based oil and gas producer fell 22 cents to close at $33.38, the lowest in two weeks.