Woodside Petroleum, the operator of two LNG export plants in Western Australia, posted a 12 percent first-quarter increase in oil and gas production, though prices were down 20 percent along with revenues from the same three months a year ago.
Woodside, one of the biggest regional suppliers of LNG cargoes to North Asia, reported sales revenue of US$1.08 billion for the quarter ended March 31, down from US$1.36Bln a year earlier.
Production came to 24.2 million barrels of oil equivalent, up from 2.17M boe as the company mitigated the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Damien during the quarter.
Total LNG output for Woodside rose 4.5 percent to 18.31M boe from 17.53 boe in the prior-year quarter.
At the same time, Woodside like all other companies in the industry implemented responses to the combined effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and lower commodity prices.
Woodside’s first-quarter one-sixth share of LNG sales at the North West Shelf plant in Western Australia came to 606,577 tonnes, down from 652,246 tonnes in the same quarter of 2019.
The Perth-based company’s sales from its stake in the Chevron-operated the Wheatstone plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia rose to 236,185 tonnes from 175,932 tonnes in the 2019 quarter.
At Woodside’s single-Train Pluto LNG plant sales amounted to 1.163 million tonnes in the quarter, up on last year’s 1.107MT.
“Tropical Cyclone Damien, which crossed the Western Australian coast in February, was the most significant weather event ever to pass over Woodside’s production facilities on the Burrup Peninsula,” stated Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman in the company's first-quarter report.
“Despite the severity of the storm, the team put in an outstanding effort to ensure the safety of our people and our assets and restore normal operations in a matter of days,” added the CEO.
“Nevertheless, revenue for the quarter was impacted by reduced trading activity and lower realised prices due to Covid-19 and an unprecedented combination of oversupply and short-term demand destruction,” stated Coleman.
“Of course, most of the quarter was overshadowed by the growing threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has required us to take swift and decisive action to protect our workforce, communities and operations,” he said.
Coleman noted that the company had already made “tough but prudent decisions” to ensure the financial integrity of the business with spending cuts in 2020 of 50 percent.
“A targeted final investment decision on our Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 developments has been deferred from this year to next,” said Coleman.
“We made solid progress on our near-term growth projects during the quarter, taking FID on Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 in Senegal and the North West Shelf’s Greater Western Flank Phase 3, as well as making significant execution progress on Pyxis Hub and Julimar-Brunello Phase 2,” he added.
