LNG

June 21 (LNGJ) - Woodside Energy, the Australian LNG operator, has revised its leadership structure to deliver the next phase of strategy after the merger with BHP’s petroleum business. The new structure takes effect from August with key appointees having Executive Vice President and other titles and split Australian and International Chief Operating Officer roles.

   The new team under Chief Executive Meg O’Neil includes Chief Financial Officer Graham Tiver; COO Australia Liz Westcott; COO International Daniel Kalms and Chief Commercial Officer Mark Abbotsford. Other posts include Technical and Energy Development Julie Fallon; Strategy Andy Drummond; and External Affairs Tony Cudmore. CEO O’Neil thanked departing members Shiva McMahon and Matthew Ridolfi.

Woodside Energy, the key supplier of LNG to North Asia from two operated plants in Western Australia, has shrugged off the rejection at its annual meeting in Perth of a non-binding vote on its climate change policies as several politically-motivated pension funds and advocacy groups voted against it as not going far enough.

JERA Co. Inc, Japan’s biggest liquefied natural gas importer and utility company, has agreed to acquire a large stake in the Scarborough gas field development offshore Western Australia from Woodside Energy for US$1.5 billion, giving a financial boost to the Pluto LNG expansion.

Woodside Energy, the Australian operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, reported an increase in quarterly revenues due to higher realised prices and supported by record full-year production.

Woodside Energy, the operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants in Western Australia and other oil and gas assets from the US to Africa, said it had three main strategic goals in the years ahead to supply energy as current production is not enough and large new investments are needed to bring additional fields on stream.

The Australian energy industry has been unsettled by environmental activists using an Aboriginal woman and additionally citing concern for whales and managing to persuade a Federal Court to delay Woodside Energy’s US$12 billion Scarborough gas project for LNG expansion, citing seismic testing approval deficiencies.

The Scarborough gas project is one of the few moving forward in Australia and has been specially targeted by environmental activists who have now succeeded in delaying Woodside’s plans as the previously approved seismic testing programme has now been called into question.

The Australian Federal Court by a decision handed down on September 28 has invalidated approvals given to Woodside by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).

Perth-based Woodside has yet to issue a formal response to the court decision.

Previous ruling

The Supreme Court of Western Australia had previously, in March 2022, dismissed two proceedings brought against the Pluto LNG and Karratha Gas Plant environmental approvals given in 2019.

In the latest hearing, Justice Craig Coleman found that NOPSEMA, did not have the statutory power to accept Woodside’s environment plan because he wasn’t reasonably satisfied that all relevant stakeholders had been consulted, including some local Aboriginals.

The Pluto LNG onshore processing facility is located on the Burrup Peninsula near Karratha in the northwest of Western Australia and the first cargo from the current single-Train facility was delivered in 2012.

The second Train planned using Scarborough field gas will have 5 million tonnes per annum of output and take total nameplate capacity to around 9.2 MTPA.

The Scarborough field is located about 375 kilometres (233 miles) off the coast of Western Australia and is estimated to contain over 11 trillion cubic feet of dry gas.

Aboriginal voice

In the Court decision to delay, the environmentalists had called on an Aboriginal woman named as Raelene Cooper to seek a court injunction to reverse the seismic testing approval, citing opposition from the “traditional custodians” of the Burrup Peninsula who seemingly had never been properly consulted.

After the ruling a statement was released on behalf of Mrs Cooper in which she said she was “elated” by the decision and described the legal win as more than a personal victory.

“I want my mob back home to be empowered by this day today. This is bigger than me,” she said. “It's about my people and our history. We've been forgotten and treated so badly,” the woman added.

“Woodside just came and told us what was happening,” she said. “They never bothered to sit down and listen to Murujuga traditional custodians about the full impacts of their Burrup hub operations on our culture and our sacred song lines,” she stated.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, is having to undertake remedial work and a cost review of its biggest overseas project, the Sangomar Field Development offshore Senegal in West Africa, and has pushed back the start-up because of work to be undertaken in Singapore on the production facility.

Woodside Energy Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said liquefied natural gas and oil and gas production were the keys to Australia's future and outlined a three-point plan for the nation  to progress while taking care not to be undermined by climate extremists.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the Northwest Shelf LNG plant and the Pluto LNG facility in Western Australia, posted soaring annual net profits because of higher prices and the benefits of the merger with commodities giant BHP’s petroleum business.

Woodside Energy, the Western Australian LNG plant operator and oil and gas producer, posted total annual sales revenues of US$16.85 billion compared US$6.97Bln in 2021 as prices soared and progress was made on LNG and oil growth projects.