Woodside Energy cuts billions from project pipeline with monumental step to abandon Scope 3 targets
Woodside has taken the monumental step to abandon its Scope 3 clean energy goals, cutting billions from its project pipeline.
Woodside Energy has taken the monumental step to abandon its Scope 3 investment and emissions targets, cutting billions from its project pipeline.
The Perth-headquartered energy giant also revealed on Tuesday, as it delivered its first half results, that the Albanese Government’s contentious domestic gas reservation proposal may scupper planned new wells off Victoria.
“We have taken the disciplined decision to retire our Scope 3 investment and emissions abatement targets,” chief executive Liz Westcott told a conference call on Tuesday.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“These targets were established in a different market context and based on a different expected pace of the energy transition.”
A key focus is selling down a green ammonia project in the US it only acquired two years ago, the Beaumont New Ammonia project in Texas.
Under a strategic review announced in April, the company seeks to become leaner and is chasing annual savings of $US350 million ($489m) from 2028, including overhead and operational cost savings from its base business.
“We are focused on improving our business effectiveness to keep our business resilient through the cycle,” Ms Westcott said.
“The structured review ... has identified opportunities to improve business effectiveness and leverage efficiencies as key assets move from project delivery into operations, and others enter later life production.
“We are building a simpler organisation that can make decisions faster, allocate resources more effectively, and deliver services as they are needed across our global portfolio.”
After taking operatorship of the Gippsland Basin assets from ExxonMobil in July, Ms Westcott said Woodside was assessing whether to proceed with four wells to unlock up to 200 petajoules of potential Bass Strait gas.
“Technical maturity and final details of the Australian Government’s proposed domestic gas reservation scheme will influence whether we progress this opportunity to a final investment decision,” she said.
“We need to think about the long-term returns that we will gain from those investments.
“We are talking, you know, near a billion dollars to make an investment in Bass Strait additional returns, and so we need line of sight for the investment framework, if you like, the regulatory space ... all capital needs to compete.”
Woodside booked a 27 per cent surge in net profit to $US1.67 billion, up from $US1.32b a year ago, despite lower production, as prices jumped due to the global oil crisis fuelled by the US war with Iran in the Middle East.
“Cyclone-related production impacts and planned Pluto (maintenance) turnaround curtailed available Woodside volumes during the period, which limited our exposure to the spot market,” Ms Westcott said.
