Page 12 - AsianOil Week 42 2022

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Woodside achieves profit record

amid high gas price

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIA’S biggest oil and gas producer Woodside is using returns from the deal to
COMPANIES Woodside Energy achieved record output and reinvest in new supply, including in the $16.5bn
sales in the third quarter, thanks to soaring gas Scarborough gas project in Western Australia,
Woodside has gained prices and the wrap-up of its merger with BHP’s the Sangomar oil project in Senegal and new
from soaring global gas petroleum division. opportunities such as the Trion oil project in
prices. The LNG exporter also raised its output guid- Mexico and hydrogen developments in the US
ance after its $40bn tie-up with BHP’s petroleum and Australia.
business was completed in June. Full year pro- Woodside realised an average price of $32.70
duction guidance was increased by 3% to 153- per mmBtu from LNG sold from its trading
157mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). portfolio – almost a fourfold increase from a
The production of 51.2mn boe for the three- year earlier and equal to $207 per boe. The com-
month period was up 52% on the June quarter pany overall sold its hydrocarbons for $102 per
and more than double the same quarter a year boe, including $117 per boe for its own LNG
ago. supply.
Revenues soared 70% from the previous As for its Scarborough LNG project,
quarter to $5.9bn in the September quarter, Woodside said discussions were ongoing to
representing a significant bump from $1.6bn in find an equity partner. The project in Western
the same period a year ago as BHP’s assets were Australia was 21% completed at the end of the
added. quarter, while Sangomar was 70% finished. ™

Australia hires new rep for Sunrise talks

PROJECTS & AUSTRALIA’S federal government has Timor’s greatest challenges. East Timor and
COMPANIES appointed Special Representative Steve Bracks Australia collaborated in developing the
to lead the development of the Sunrise gas pro- Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea, which
East Timor is pushing ject , situated in the area jointly administered by provides feedstock for the 3.7mn tonne per
for the liquefaction Australia and East Timor. year (tpy) Darwin LNG.
of Sunrise’s gas Bracks will represent the Australian govern- Bayu-Undan is set to cease production by
domestically. ment in consultation with the East Timor gov- the end of the year, according to its opera-
ernment and other key stakeholders. That will tor, Australia’s Santos. This will consequently
involve talking with the Sunrise joint venture deprive East Timor of its biggest revenue
that is operated by Australia’s Woodside. East earner. The country has so far accrued $18bn
Timor has a commanding 56.5% stake in Sunrise in savings in its sovereign wealth fund mainly
after buying the stakes of Shell and ConocoPhil- from taxes and royalties from Bayu-Undan. ™
lips for $650mn in 2018. Woodside has 33.4%,
while the remainder is owned by Japanese utility
Osaka Gas.
Bracks previously worked as the premier of
the state of Victoria between 1999 and 2007,
and also served in roles advising the East Timor
government. His latest appointment comes after
East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta visited
Australia last month, urging the government to
back his plan for pumping gas from Sunrise to a
liquefaction plant in East Timor, rather than to
Darwin in Australia.
The 5.1 trillion cubic foot (144bn cubic
metre) Sunrise project has suffered delays
because Dili and Canberra have not been able
to agree on the details of a production-shar-
ing contract (PSC) for the field. Ramos Horta
described the field last month as one of East

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