Australia’s Woodside records weaker Jan-Mar LNG output

Australian independent Woodside Energy's January-March output dropped against a year earlier and the previous quarter, as reliability fell at its 4.9mn t/yr Pluto LNG project offshore Western Australia.

Woodside produced 494,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) across its portfolio for January-March, 5pc below the 522,000 boe/d reported during October-December and 4pc below its 2023 full-year figure of 513,000 boe/d.

Lower production at its Bass Strait, Pyrenees and Pluto assets was partially offset by increased production at the 140,000 b/d Mad Dog phase 2 oil field in the US Gulf of Mexico, which hit peak production of 130,000 b/d during the quarter.

Reliability at Pluto was 94.6pc for the quarter because of an offshore trip and an onshore electrical fault. Woodside made a final investment decision (FID) on the Xena-3 well to support Pluto production during the quarter.

The 16.9mn t/yr North West Shelf (NWS) LNG achieved 97pc reliability for the quarter with NWS' joint-venture partners taking a FID on the Lambert West field, which will support continuing production.

Lower seasonal market demand and offshore maintenance activity saw production drop at the firm's Bass Strait fields, while production ended at the Gippsland basin joint venture's West Kingfish platform because of slowing oil output from Kingfish field.

The Pyrenees floating production storage and offloading vessel began planned maintenance in early March and will return to crude production for April-June, Woodside said. Two 550,000 bl cargoes of Pyrenees crude loaded each quarter during 2023.

Revenue dropped by 31pc to $2.97bn from $4.33bn a year earlier and 12pc from $3.36bn during October-December. Woodside's total average realised price dipped to $63/boe, 6pc down on the previous quarter's $67/boe and 26pc below the year-earlier figure of $85/boe.

Woodside's average realised price for LNG produced was $10.40/mn Btu or 10pc down on the previous quarter's $11.50/mn Btu. The firm is more heavily exposed to spot prices and gas hub pricing than fellow domestic LNG producer Australian independent Santos, with about 30pc of Woodside's equity-produced LNG sold at these spot prices.

By Tom Major