Woodside full-year profit soars

Australian energy company Woodside has reported a growth in its full year net profit for 2014. The company’s full year reported net profit after tax was  $2.414 billion.

This is an increase of 38% on  $1.75 billion in 2013, and is the second highest net profit in the company’s history, exceeded only by the 2012 result, which was enhanced by the Browse partial equity sale.

Woodside has also said it had a record underlying of US$2.421 billion, underpinned by record production of 95.1 MMboe and record operating revenue of $7.435 billion. The operating revenue rose 25% from $5.926 billion in 2013.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the results reflected Woodside’s rigorous approach to improving facility reliability and achieving cost savings across the business.

“Our focus on lowering cost structures is evidenced in unit production costs decreasing. Continuous improvement in driving business efficiencies will remain our priority in the current challenging market conditions,” he said.

Coleman said the company had significantly progressed its global growth strategy throughout the year, re-balancing its exploration portfolio, developing marketing and trading opportunities and through the proposed acquisition of key Apache interests.

“We have made significant progress in building our global exploration portfolio in emerging petroleum provinces in parallel with increasing supply optionality for customers. The world-class Wheatstone, Balnaves and Kitimat interests will provide value-enhancing opportunities that complement our existing portfolio.”

In a video below, Woodside CEO Peter Coleman talks about the company’s 2014 Full-Year Results: