LNG

Woodside Energy, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia as well as other oil and gas assets, reported soaring second-quarter revenues and increased production, helped by the contribution from BHP’s acquired petroleum business.

May 20 (LNGJ) - Australian LNG exporter Woodside Petroleum has become the latest global oil and gas and petroleum market player to green wash its corporate image as others have before them, changing the name of a respectable hydrocarbon exploration and production business.

   The Perth-based company said the new name is Woodside Energy Group Ltd and it has been registered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) after being approved by shareholders. “All references to Woodside Petroleum Ltd in the company’s constitution have been replaced with references to Woodside Energy Group,” the company assured all its new enviro mates as well as investors at home and abroad.

Woodside Petroleum said it could be time to revive the cancelled Browse LNG export project to use the vast natural gas reserves in the fields offshore Western Australia at a time of future global shortages as Europe breaks with Russia as a supplier.

The Woodside comments were made by Chief Executive Meg O’Neill in front of shareholders at the Woodside Annual General Meeting held at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre.

“The likelihood that major energy customers will continue moving away from Russian energy sources also strengthens the case for other undeveloped gas fields, such as Browse, to be brought on-line,” O’Neill told the meeting.

The Browse LNG project was previously planned using 13.3 trillion cubic feet of gas from the Browse Basin offshore northwest Australia.

An onshore export plant with an initial 10 million tonnes per annum of output had almost reached the design stage when it was cancelled by the Government.

“We are in this position of financial strength at a time of significant volatility in global commodity markets including oil and gas, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” explained O’Neill.

“Against this backdrop of geo-political uncertainty, security of energy supply becomes ever more important. Reliable supply from Woodside’s established and emerging projects will be increasingly valuable to customers in our region,” she stated.

Pluto expansion

O’Neill also commented on current projects including the Pluto LNG expansion in Western Australia and the Sangomar oil project offshore Senegal in West Africa.

“Construction of the Pluto-KGP Interconnector pipeline between Pluto LNG and the Karratha Gas Plant was completed in late 2021, enabling processing of third-party gas to begin in March this year,” O’Neill told shareholders.

“The Interconnector links our two most significant producing assets, optimising production at both Pluto and KGP and providing us with optionality for the future,” she added.

“We also achieved ready for start-up for the first phase of Pyxis Hub, and for Julimar-Brunello Phase 2, which are important tie-backs for the Pluto and Wheatstone LNG projects respectively,” said the CEO.

O’Neill also noted that on the ground in Karratha, major civil works were well underway on the construction of an accommodation village for the Pluto Train 2 construction workforce.

“Manufacture of the Scarborough pipeline commenced in February and fabrication of the offshore floating production unit topsides is targeted to begin this quarter,” she said.

In West Africa, O’Neill declared that the Sangomar oil project in Senegal was on schedule.

“Construction of our Sangomar project offshore Senegal is progressing well, with the Phase 1 development close to 60 percent complete and on track for first oil in 2023,” she said.

“We have successfully drilled and completed the first four production wells and a second drill ship remains on schedule to commence drilling in mid-year,” added O’Neill.

She explained that conversion activities for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit were progressing and the subsea installation campaign was scheduled to start later in 2022. 

Woodside Petroleum, the leading Western Australian LNG operator, has applied to list its shares in the form of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) on the New York Stock Exchange and plans to also list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in connection with the proposed merger with the petroleum business of commodities giant BHP Group.

Anglo-Australian commodities company BHP and LNG plant operator Woodside Petroleum have worked out the final point for Woodside’s takeover of BHP’s oil and gas portfolio.

BHP told its shareholders that the completion of the merger was on track for June 2022, subject to satisfaction of conditions precedent including approval by Woodside shareholders.

The commodities giant said it was expected to receive 914.8 million newly issued Woodside shares at completion a dividend on Woodside shares would go to BHP shareholders.

BHP shareholders are expected to be entitled to one Woodside Share for every 5.5340 BHP shares they hold on the record date.

Based on Woodside’s share price of US$25.55 at 6 April 2022, the implied value of BHP’s subsidiary BHP Petroleum is US$23.4 billion.

Woodside will retain its primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, though the company was seeking a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange and an American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) program on the New York Stock Exchange on completion of the merger.

“A share sale facility will be in place for small BHP shareholders who elect to participate and for shareholders who are ineligible to receive Woodside Shares,” said BHP.

BHP said that all required regulatory and competition approvals have been obtained, other than the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) approval which is expected prior to completion.

Separate to the receipt of Woodside shares on completion, Woodside will also make a cash payment to BHP of approximately US$830 million in relation to cash dividends paid by Woodside between the merger’s effective date of 1 July 2021 and completion.

This represents the cash dividend that would have been received by holders of the Woodside shares.

BHP in turn will make a cash payment to Woodside for the net cash flow generated by BHP Petroleum between the merger’s effective date of 1 July 2021 and completion.

From the effective date to 31 December 2021 only, this amounts to approximately US$900M.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian oil and gas company and LNG operator, has received final approvals for the pipeline to shore and for the field development plan Scarborough Gas project to underpin the Pluto LNG expansion in Western Australia.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG export plants, said the processing of gas had started ahead of schedule from new fields offshore Western Australia, opening the way for more LNG shipments.

One of Australia’s leading energy market regulators has said that the events in Ukraine had pushed global energy markets further into the unknown and that gas supply problems for Europe could get much worse and LNG exporter Australia is also on course for severe gas shortages.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of the North West Shelf plant and Pluto LNG in Western Australia, reported full-year net profits of US$1.98 billion versus a loss of US$4.28Bln in the previous year and two major liquefaction plant maintenance turnaround are scheduled for 2022.

Woodside Petroleum, the leading LNG plant operator in Western Australian, has named the new executive leadership team in the run-up to the completion in the second quarter of Woodside’s merger with the spun-off oil and gas business of Anglo-Australian commodities company BHP.