As expected Woodside Energy’s annual profit has jumped by more than a quarter as it benefited from higher oil and LNG prices (in particular) and higher production.
Full-year net profit rose 28% to $1.36 billion, driven by revenues of $5.24 billion. The company said it made a “gross profit” of $2.6 billion, up 31% on 2017.
As a result, Woodside will pay a fully franked final dividend of 91 US cents a share, bringing the full year dividend to $US1.44, up 47% on 2017’s payout.
“Our net profit increased by 28 percent year-on-year, driven by robust operational performance throughout 2018 and improved market conditions,” Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman said in a statement accompanying yesterday’s results announcement.
“During the year, we achieved a number of significant milestones in our plans to develop the Scarborough and Browse fields off Western Australia through our facilities on the Burrup Peninsula.
“Our plans for the Burrup Hub will more than double Woodside’s equity LNG production by 2027, providing long-term gas supplies for both domestic and export markets.”
It produced 91.4 million barrels of oil equivalent for 2018, accounting for about 6 percent of the world’s global supply of LNG.
The group is targeting a production rate of 100 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2020.
This will be aided by the development of its Scarborough and Greater Enfield projects as well as better than expected production rates from its Wheatstone 2 LNG gas processing train.
The group is also making strides at its overseas projects.
“In Senegal, we transitioned to operator of SNE, the country’s first offshore oil development. The SNE joint venture has now secured environmental approval and commenced front end engineering and design activities for the first phase of the development, targeted for first oil in 2022,” Mr. Coleman said.
“The past year has been a busy one for Woodside, but we are looking forward to achieving even more in 2019 when we plan to start production at Greater Enfield and take a final investment decision on SNE.
“At the same time, we will be preparing for final investment decisions in 2020 on Scarborough, Pluto LNG Train 2 and Browse.”
Woodside shares were up 1.9% at $35.53.
