Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

O’Neill said while prices for the liquefied natural gas it exports had fallen from the heady levels of 2022 it was still above historic norms with the price marker for selling to Japan sitting at about $US15 per million British thermal units.

“Three years ago,we would have been ecstatic to be at that price level,” she said.

Woodside shareholders – including BHP shareholders,who were awarded 48 per cent of the enlarged firm’s equity – will receive a fully franked $US1.44 a share dividend bringing the payout to $US2.53 for the year.

The BHP purchase has taken Woodside away from its traditional focus on gas from the waters off Australia’s north-west coast to the east coast gas market and a strong presence in North America where both major final investment decisions for 2023 are located.

The $66 billion company is planning two major investments this year – drilling for Mexican oil and US green hydrogen.

The Trion development off the coast of Mexico is planned to produce 100,000 barrels of oil a day,while the H2OK hydrogen plant in Oklahoma would be Woodside’s first substantial investment in non-fossil fuel energy.

Beyond this year,Woodside is progressing the CO2-rich Browse gas fields of WA and agreen hydrogen project in New Zealand,where it beat Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue to be the preferred candidate.

O’Neill said on Monday Woodside needed to meet three key requirements to start the 18 months of engineering design to support an investment decision on the $US20.5 billion Browse project:a way to capture and store the high level of carbon dioxide in the reservoirs,progress on environmental approvals,and finalising a deal for the processing of the gas through its North West Shelf LNG plant.

Woodside applied to the federal government for environmental approvals on Browse environmental in 2019. Meanwhile,appeals against approval from the WA government to extend the life of the LNG plant to 2070 have so far been in consideration for seven months.

“It’s an unfortunate feature of the regulatory environment that there’s no time constraints on any of these reviews,” O’Neill said.

In New Zealand,Woodside wants a piece of Southern Green Hydrogen – a joint venture of two NZ power providers – to export the hydrogen product ammonia to Japan to be burnt in coal-fired power stations to reduce emissions.

“There’s a lot of work that we have to do to get the whole value chain built out,” O’Neill said of the need to move the fuel and understand how best to mix it with coal.

Woodside is ahead of schedule in achieving $US400 million in annual savings from the merger that incurred one-off transaction and integration costs of $US633 million.

UBS analyst Tom Allen said Woodside had posted a slightly softer than expected result due to higher tax and restoration expenses,which at $US263 million were more than 10 times higher than two years earlier.

Woodside’s liability for restoration – the removal of their equipment after production ends – jumped $US4.3 billion with the addition of BHP assets,and now 46 per cent of the spend is in the next decade,up from 36 per cent pre-merger.

Woodside paid $1.06 billion in Australian taxes in 2022 and $1.6 billion in royalties for the oil and gas it extracted.

Woodside shares closed the session 1.5 per cent higher at $35.13.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories,exclusive coverage and expert opinion.Sign up to get it every weekday morning.

License this article