Woodside sales drop 29pc as prices slide
Woodside Energy posted a 29 per cent dive in quarterly sales after a drop in oil and LNG prices and a dip in production in its weakest quarter since merging with BHP Petroleum in June last year.
Sales for the April-June period reached $US3.08 billion ($4.5 billion), down from $US4.33 billion in the March quarter, and 10 per cent lower than the same period of 2022.
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said operations were strong despite a maintenance shutdown. Trevor Collens
The average price Woodside got for its production slid to $US63 per barrel, down from $US85/bbl in the March quarter and $US95/bbl in the same period a year earlier.
The softer quarter came after Woodside on Tuesday disappointed the market with news of a cost blowout and delay at its Sangomar oil project being developed in Senegal after “remedial” work was needed on the production ship under construction in Singapore.
A fatality in early June at one of Woodside’s principal offshore platforms marred the oil and gas producer’s safety record, with chief executive Meg O’Neill describing the period as “extremely difficult for everyone at Woodside”.
The accident is under investigation by the Western Australian police and the national offshore petroleum safety regulator, while Woodside is carrying out an internal investigation.
Ms O’Neill said that production in the period had been reduced by scheduled maintenance work at the Pluto LNG plant near Karratha but she still described operational performance as “strong”.
She said construction on the $16.5 billion Scarborough and Pluto expansion project “continued to make good progress” and is now 38 per cent complete.
Final investment decisions were taken through the quarter on both the Trion oil project in Mexico and the
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