Woodside looks to greenlight Louisiana LNG project, expand beyond core Asia market

(Bloomberg) – Woodside Energy Group Ltd. is preparing to give the go-ahead for its Louisiana LNG project as Australia’s biggest natural gas producer looks beyond its core markets in Asia.

The company is “in the process of bringing partners into that development” and wants to make a final decision from this quarter, CEO Meg O’Neill said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. That will help an expansion away from its plants in Australia, which mainly supply Asian customers, she said, after the company reported a doubling in profit earlier in the day. 

“One of the things that we are trying to do at Woodside is to become a more globally impactful LNG player — we’ve used the phrase LNG powerhouse in the past,” O’Neill said. “Louisiana LNG helps us to secure a material presence in the Atlantic Basin into European consumers.”

Woodside is “seeing a lot of slowing” in competing LNG projects, but would still be interested in off-take agreements with them, she said. Geopolitical developments mean there’s “a lot to keep track of in our world in what we expect will continue to be a volatile year,” O’Neill said.

The Perth-based company reported net income of $3.57 billion for last year, up from $1.66 billion in 2023, and ahead of a consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. Production rose 4% to 194 million barrels of oil equivalent. 

Production guidance for this year was kept at 186 to 196 million barrels, of which about 40% is LNG. Underlying profit fell 13% from a year earlier to $2.88 billion. 

Woodside shares rose as much as 3.5%, their biggest intraday jump since early October, before trading 2.8% higher as of 3:39 p.m. in Sydney.