Rising production bumps Woodside’s first-half profit

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum on Wednesday reported an 11 percent rise in its half-year profit as production and sales revenue bumped up. 

Profit after tax for the period reached $541 million while sales revenue climbed 27 percent to $2.25 billion with the production of 44.3 mmboe, 5 percent above the production volumes in the first half of 2017.

Commenting on the results, Woodside’s CEO Peter Coleman said the company’s “base business performed strongly, with Pluto LNG exceeding 99 percent reliability. Wheatstone LNG Train 1 has achieved above nameplate production rates and Train 2 is ramping up as planned.”

He added that these results underpin an increase in the 2018 annual production guidance to a range of 87 to 91 mmboe.

The Scarborough advancement continued as the company initiated contractor engagement for the Scarborough FEED phase, targeted to begin in late 2018. The proposed development of Scarborough, with the gas to be processed at our proposed Pluto LNG Train 2, would take advantage of the expected global LNG supply gap from the early 2020s.

In addition, an alignment was reached between the North West Shelf participants on non-binding commercial terms and pricing for processing third-party gas through NWS infrastructure.

“We expect to reach a preliminary tolling agreement between the NWS project participants and Browse joint venture in Q3 2018,” Coleman said.

Investment expenditure for 2018 is expected to be between $2,000 and $2,050 million, which includes the acquisition of an increased interest in Scarborough in the first half.