Australian independent Woodside Petroleum said today it plans to spend $5bn on new energy projects by 2030 as part of its energy transition strategy to lower greenhouse gas emissions intensive fuels.
The firm plans to start ammonia exports from Australia by 2025 and liquid hydrogen by the end of the decade, and to scale up its carbon offsets programme over the next nine years.
Woodside has so far this year announced four energy projects that it plans to develop to diversify from its traditional business of LNG and oil. The new projects include hydrogen-related ventures, and the fourth is a concentrated solar energy system.
"We have also set ourselves a new target to invest $5bn in new energy products and lower-carbon services by 2030," said Woodside chief executive officer Meg O'Neill at the firm's investor day.
Woodside is focusing on two prospective markets initially, namely the heavy vehicle transport and power generation sectors, O'Neill said. "Using hydrogen to fuel heavy vehicles is a compelling way to seed a hydrogen market, as there is limited refuelling infrastructure required for trucks doing point-to-point runs from a depot," she said.
On 6 December, Woodside formed a joint venture with US-based hydrogen fuel cell heavy vehicle producer Hyzon Motors to build an initial 290MW facility in Oklahoma, to fuel electrolysis to produce up to 90 t/d of liquid hydrogen for the heavy transport sector.
"We expect that in the mid-2020s the new energy transition will be underway, including the start-up of the first of our new energy projects. We could potentially be exporting ammonia from Australia and developing carbon capture and utilisation opportunities," O' Neill said.
New energy at scale is expected in the 2030s, which could include exporting liquid hydrogen from Australia, scaling up carbon capture and storage activities and expanding production from Woodside's new energy projects to match market demand, she said.
Woodside also formed another hydrogen venture in October, the H2Perth project located near the Kwinana industrial hub, south of Perth. H2Perth has an initial phase of producing about 110,000 t/yr of hydrogen production, including a 250MW electrolysis component, O'Neill said.
Woodside plans to make a final investment decision in 2023 on its proposed H2TAS hydrogen plant at Bell Bay on the island state of Tasmania. H2TAS will initially target 200,000 t/yr of ammonia from hydropower and wind sources for export, and a 300MW electrolysis plant.
The Perth-based firm is also involved in Heliogen concentrated solar technology at a pilot facility in California, it said. "By 2030, we have the potential for approximately 3,000MW of capacity from lower-carbon energy solutions," O'Neill said.
Woodside reiterated that its agreed merger with the petroleum arm of UK and Australian resources firm BHP is due to be completed in the April-June quarter of 2022. The combined operations of the two firms will provide several potential investment opportunities in oil and gas, including the Sangomar crude project offshore Senegal, Mad Dog Phase 2, Shenzi North and other options in the Gulf of Mexico, and Scarborough offshore Western Australia, O'Neill said.
"We expect LNG to remain an important part of the energy mix in our region for decades to come, both as a lower-carbon source of fuel for coal-dependent countries and as convenient firming capacity for renewables," O'Neill said at an investor briefing.
Woodside is the operator of the 16.3mn t/yr North West Shelf (NWS) LNG venture and the 4.3mn t/yr Pluto LNG venture, which are both located offshore Western Australia and has a 13pc stake in the 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG venture.
