Type | Public |
---|---|
ASX: WPL | |
Industry | Oil and gas |
Predecessor | Woodside (Lakes Entrance) Oil Co NL |
Founded | 26 July 1954 |
Headquarters | Perth, Western Australia |
Key people | Meg O'Neill, CEO |
Products | Petroleum LNG |
Production output | 100.3 MMboe (2020) |
Revenue | $3.6 billion (2020) [1] |
($4.0 billion) (2020) [1] | |
Number of employees | ≈3,300 |
Website | www |
Woodside Petroleum Ltd is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. Woodside is the operator of oil and gas production in Australia and also Australia's largest independent dedicated oil and gas company. [2] It is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Woodside Petroleum was ranked as the 1328th-largest public company in the world. [3]
Woodside was incorporated on 26 July 1954. It was originally named Woodside (Lakes Entrance) Oil Co NL and it was named after the small town of Woodside, Victoria. [4] Woodside's early years were focused on Victoria's Gippsland Basin. Switching to northern Western Australia in the early 1960s, Woodside joined up with Shell and Burmah Oil to form the original North West Shelf consortium. BHP later replaced Burmah, and with Shell, each became a 40% shareholder in Woodside in 1985. [5] BHP reduced its shareholding to 10% in July 1990. [6] In October 1994, BHP sold its remaining shares while Shell sold down to 34%. [7] In 1995, Woodside moved its head office from Melbourne to Perth. [8]
In 2001 Shell sought to buy out the remaining portion of the company that it did not already own at the time; however, the takeover move was blocked by Treasurer of Australia, Peter Costello, on national interest grounds. [9] In November 2010, Shell reduced its 34% stake to 24%. [10] In November 2017, Shell sold its remaining shares. [11] [12] [13]
In August 2021, Woodside entered into an agreement with BHP to merge the latter's oil and gas assets with Woodside. The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval [14] and has been described as 'a disastrous outcome for Woodside shareholders' [15] and 'a lousy investment' [16]
Woodside has exploration, development and operating activities in Australia and a number of international regions including Canada, United States, Senegal, South Korea, New Zealand, Myanmar, Cameroon, Gabon, Morocco and Ireland. Within Australia Woodside operates or is developing a number of liquefied natural gas projects. The company also operates the Enfield and Vincent oil fields offshore from Exmouth in Western Australia. [17]
The Greater Sunrise gas development lies in the Timor Sea north of Australia and includes the Sunrise and Troubadour fields, which were discovered in 1974. Greater Sunrise is located about 450 kilometres (280 mi) north-west of Darwin and 150 kilometres (93 mi) south-east of Timor-Leste. Approximately 80% of the fields lie within Australian waters, with the remainder in jointly administered waters. The Greater Sunrise fields have a total contingent dry gas resource of 5.13 trillion cubic feet (145 billion cubic metres) and 225.9 million barrels (35.92 million cubic metres) of condensate. The Sunrise JV participants are Woodside (operator) (33.4%), ConocoPhillips (30%), Shell (26.6%) and Osaka Gas (10%). [18]
In April 2010 Shell's floating liquefied natural gas technology was selected by the Sunrise Joint Venture for developing the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea. The Woodside-operated JV is now seeking to engage regulators on the concept selection process. [19]
Woodside owns and operates a number of oil developments offshore Western Australia, including the Nganhurra FPSO, the Ngujima-Yin FPSO and the Okha FPSO. [20]
In February 2006, the Mauritanian military junta led by Ely Ould Mohamed Vall denounced amendments to an oil contract made by former president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya with Woodside Petroleum. In 2004, Woodside had agreed to invest US$600 million in developing Mauritania's Chinguetti offshore oil project. The controversial amendments, which Mauritanian authorities declared had been signed "outside the legal framework of normal practice, to the great detriment of our country", could cost Mauritania up to $200 million a year. [21] [22] The Australian Federal Police in June 2006 were investigating Woodside for allegations of bribery and corruption in Mauritania. [23] [24] The AFP officially cleared the company of any wrongdoing in May 2008.[ citation needed ]
In 2006–2007, as part of the Pluto LNG project, Woodside faced opposition over plans to build an onshore processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia, as the site is home to significant petroglyphs up to 30,000 years old. [25]
It has been suggested that intense lobbying by Woodside Petroleum contributed to the coalition Howard government's initial decision against emissions trading in August 2000. [26] The company also opposed the Rudd Labor government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009. [27]
Woodside is among six companies accused of making deceptive public statements in an attempt to get free carbon permits. The Australian Conservation Foundation says the companies exaggerated in public, but told a different story to their shareholders and investors. In June 2009, the ACF lodged an official complaint [28] with the Federal consumer affairs watchdog asking that the matter be investigated. [29] The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission took no action against the companies. [30]
In April 2011 Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman began an investigation into claims that foreign workers were underpaid on two North West Shelf oil rigs operated by Woodside Petroleum. [31] In April 2013, the Federal Court in WA heard allegations that the workers were paid less than $3 an hour to work on the oil rigs. Documents tendered to the court claimed that the four men worked as painters on Woodside rigs on the North West Shelf off northern WA from July 2009 until early 2011. [32]
In the corporation's annual offshore performance report, published in mid-2013, the failure of an oil mist detector at Woodside Petroleum's Vincent oilfield in Western Australia was caused by faulty wiring and inadequately designed equipment. The issue was identified during a visit by a third party at Woodside's largest single source of oil production. [33]
In April 2016, Woodside concealed a 10 500 litre oil spill off the coast of Western Australia, which went on for two months without anyone from the company noticing. Woodside’s responsibility only came to light after intense public pressure. [34] In March 2019, Woodside led a lobbying effort to force the Western Australia EPA to abandon new guidelines to protect the climate. The Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility described the affair as a ‘week of shame.’ [35]
In mid-2020, Woodside tried to avoid decommissioning costs by convincing regulators that dumping all the equipment from its Echo-Yodel field, including 400 tonnes of plastic, under the pretence of the waste being an 'artificial reef' [36] The same year, after calls to pay over $200 million to clean up an old gas processing facility they had decommissioned, Woodside convinced the government to instead grant them millions of taxpayer dollars, through a shadowy limited tender process, to ‘consult’ on the clean up. [37] Perhaps most significantly, Woodside have attracted condemnation for their role in the wiretapping of the East Timor government in order to 'force East Timor, one of the poorest countries in the world, to surrender most of the revenues' to Woodside. [38]
The "Save The Kimberley" campaign was an organised protest against Woodside's involvement with a proposal to construct the James Price Point gas industrial complex in Western Australia's Kimberley region. [39] A protest concert was held at Federation Square in October 2012, [40] followed by a second event in early 2013 at Esplanade Park, Fremantle that featured Bob Brown, former leader of the Australian Greens political party. [41] A march to protest the proposed gas refinery construction at James Price Point accompanied the Fremantle concert, and campaign supporters were photographed with banners and placards. [42]
The proposal was eventually abandoned in April 2013, but the $1.5 billion social benefits package that had been brokered between the Kimberley Land Council and Woodside, together with its joint-venture partners and the Barnett government, remained an ongoing issue. Criticism was directed at the corporation by those who believed that Woodside was under an obligation to pay out the full monetary sum of the package to local Aboriginal organisations and communities. Former head of the Kimberley Land Council Wayne Bergmann, who brokered the deal prior to his resignation, explained to the media: "There was no legal right to that deal; it was broached politically and now they [Woodside, the joint-venture partners and the state government] need to honour the bargain." As of 15 April 2013, Woodside had paid AU$3.7 million to Aboriginal organisations in accordance with the agreement and a Woodside spokesperson stated that the corporation would "continue to support a range of voluntary social investment activities in the West Kimberley". [43]
In November 2021, around 50 local people rallied at Karratha to protest against one of the biggest oil and gas developments ever undertaken in Australia, by Woodside and BHP, known as the Scarborough project [44] (Scarborough being the name of the gas field, 375 km (233 mi) off the Pilbara coast [45] [46] ). The project includes a floating production unit, the drilling of 13 wells, and a 430 km (270 mi) pipeline to transport the gas to the onshore Pluto LNG processing facility near Karratha, which will be expanded. [45] [46] Production is expected to begin in 2026. [45] The project has received environmental approval. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation has no role in approving such industrial projects, but there is research being undertaken as to whether increased emissions would affect the ancient rock art of the Dampier Rock Art Precinct on Murujuga. [44]
The economy of Brunei, a small and wealthy country, is a mixture of foreign and domestic entrepreneurship, government regulation and welfare measures, and village traditions. It is almost entirely supported by exports of crude oil and natural gas, with revenues from the petroleum sector accounting for over half of GDP. Per capita GDP is high, and substantial income from overseas investment supplements income from domestic production. The government provides for all medical services and subsidizes food and housing. The government has shown progress in its basic policy of diversifying the economy away from oil and gas. Brunei's leaders are concerned that steadily increased integration in the world economy will undermine internal social cohesion although it has taken steps to become a more prominent player by serving as chairman for the 2000 APEC forum. Growth in 1999 was estimated at 2.5% due to higher oil prices in the second half.
The economy of Mauritania is still largely based on agriculture and livestock, even though most of the nomads and many subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurring droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.
BHP is an Australian-British multinational mining, metals and petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Timor Sea is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, and to the south by Australia.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company founded in 1924 and one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. TotalEnergies is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced by itself or from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported through a pipeline. FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
Petroliam Nasional Berhad, commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. Petronas is ranked among Fortune Global 500's largest corporations in the world. In the 2017 Forbes Global 2000, Petronas Gas was ranked as the 1881st largest public company in the world. Petronas also ranked 48th globally in 2020 Bentley Infrastructure 500.
The Chinguetti oilfield is an oil field located off the Mauritanian coast in 800 m water depth. It was discovered by the Australian firm Woodside Petroleum in 2001. It is named after the city of Chinguetti.
INPEX Corporation is a Japanese oil company established in February 1966 as North Sumatra Offshore Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. INPEX is the largest oil and gas exploration and production company in Japan, with global exploration, development and production projects in 20 countries. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, INPEX was ranked as the 597th -largest public company in the world.
Shell Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Shell Plc. Shell has operated in Australia since 1901, initially delivering bulk fuel into Australia, then establishing storage and distribution terminals, oil refineries, and a network of service stations. It extended its Australian activities to oil exploration, petrochemicals and coal mining, and became a leading partner in Australia's largest resource development project, the North West Shelf Venture.
The Bonga Field is an oilfield in Nigeria. It was located in License block OPL 212 off the Nigerian coast, which was renamed OML 118 in February 2000. The field covers approximately 60 km2 in an average water depth of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). The field was discovered in 1996, with government approval for its development given in 2002. The field began first production in November 2005. The field is worked via an FPSO vessel. The field produces both petroleum and natural gas; the petroleum is offloaded to tankers while the gas is piped back to Nigeria where it is exported via an LNG plant. The field contains approximately 6,000 mm barrels of oil.
The North West Shelf Venture, situated in the north-west of Western Australia, is Australia's largest resource development project. It involves the extraction of petroleum at offshore production platforms, onshore processing and export of liquefied natural gas, and production of natural gas for industrial, commercial and domestic use within the state.
The Gorgon gas project is a multi-decade natural gas project in Western Australia, involving the development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, subsea gas-gathering infrastructure, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island. The project also includes a domestic gas component. Construction was completed in 2017.
The petroleum industry in Western Australia is the largest contributor to Australia's production of most petroleum products.
Shell plc is a British publicly traded multinational oil and gas company headquartered at Shell Centre in London, United Kingdom. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and by revenue and profits is one of the largest companies in the world, ranking within the top 10 of the Fortune global 500 since 2000. Measured by both its own emissions, and the emissions of all the fossil fuels it sells, Shell was the ninth-largest corporate producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 1988–2015.
A floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility is a floating production storage and offloading unit that conducts liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations for developing offshore natural gas resources. Floating above an offshore natural gas field, the FLNG facility produces, liquefied stores and transfers LNG at sea before carriers ship it directly to markets.
The Browse LNG was a liquefied natural gas plant project proposed for construction at James Price Point, 52 kilometres (32 mi) north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. It was considered by a joint venture including Woodside Petroleum, Shell, BP, Japan Australia LNG and BHP Billiton. It would have processed natural gas extracted from the Browse Basin. Liquefied natural gas would then be shipped from a port facility also located in the Browse LNG Precinct.
James Price Point is a headland in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is 52 kilometres (32 mi) north of Broome.
The Scarborough gas field is a natural gas field located in the Indian Ocean north-west of Exmouth on the coast of Western Australia. The total Contingent Resource of the Scarborough gas field is around 7.3 trillion cubic feet. In 2018 Woodside bought ExxonMobil' 50% share of the retention lease, adding to the 25% it had acquired from BHP in 2016. Woodside now owns 75% of the retention lease and are operator of the joint venture, with BHP retaining the final 25%. On the 7 April, 2022, the Company announced that final Australian federal and state government approvals for the project had been received.