Japan's largest trading firm, Mitsubishi Corp, and Japanese company Mitsui & Co will not be pushing through with a previous agreement to purchase liquefied natural gas from Woodside Petroleum Ltd's Browse, Bloomberg reported. The report said the withdrawal was due to delays in the Australia-based project.

In a statement today, Woodside said the venture of the two Japanese firms, called Japan Australia LNG Pty, will not proceed with the purchase of 1.5 million metric tons of LNG each year from Browse since the transaction rely on the project arriving at an investment decision by the end of 2013.

Last year, Woodside canceled plans to construct Browse onshore in Western Australia. The second biggest oil and gas producer in Australia later estimated that the project would have cost over A$80 billion or $71 billion to build. Instead, the firm intended to make a decision sometime in the middle of 2015 on whether to push through with a plan to liquefy gas on giant ships located offshore using the technology from Royal Dutch Shell, the report said.

In 2012, the two Japanese firms reached an agreement to purchase a 14.7% stake in Browse in a deal valued at $2 billion. The statement said Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsui & Co will continue to work with the Australia-based firm to sell LNG from the venture to the Asian market.

The statement added that Woodside is still in discussions with other regional customers to sell gas from Browse and other LNG projects. Other partners of the Australian firm in the development of Browse are PetroChina Co, Shell and BP Plc, the report said.

In an emailed response to questions, Woodside told Bloomberg, "Global demand for LNG is growing at a very fast pace. Woodside believes Browse will play an important part in future regional supply of safe and reliable LNG."