Woodside is looking at a massive fall in first-half revenue and earnings in the wake of the still-evolving oil price crash.
The company recorded sales revenue of $US1.08 billion for the quarter ended March 31, down a quarter from $US1.36 billion a year earlier. The June quarter’s revenue figures will be lower – well under $US1 billion.
CEO Peter Coleman blamed the “unprecedented combination” of oversupply and vanishing demand.
Its average sales prices for its products during the quarter amounted to $US45 per barrels of oil equivalent (boe), more than $US10 weaker than a year earlier.
But this quarter will be worse with prices this month down at between $US20 and $US30 a barrel for US and Brent style crudes and LNG prices slumping as well.
And demand is forecast to fall by a massive 29 million barrels a day by the International Energy Agency this month and by around 9.3 million barrels a day over all of the year.
The price slide has seen a growing number of US producers in particular shut-in production as part of cost cuts. ConocoPhillips on Thursday announced it was shutting in 200,000 barrels a day of oil production and dropping all fracking crews for the rest of 2020.
Conoco said it is shutting in 75,000 BPD of bitumen production from its Surmount thermal oil development in Canada and another 125,000 BPD at its operated US onshore assets.
The US shut-ins will be felt in all of the company’s major operating areas, including the South Texas Eagle Ford Shale, Niobrara Shale, Bakken Shale, and Permian Basin, executives said on a conference call explaining the move.
Conoco has confirmed plans to cut its exploration and development spending, as well as other costs by a planned $US5 billion this year.
That will lead to more job losses across the major US oil-producing basins.
Last month, Woodside slashed its planned spending for fiscal 2020 by about $US2 billion ($A3.2 billion) and deferred key projects to stave off the impact from the pandemic and low oil prices.
The country’s top independent gas producer said its planned investment spending for 2020 would now be between $US1.70 billion and $US1.90 billion.
Woodside reaffirmed its earlier output forecast of between 97 million and 103 million BOE.
Production for the first quarter was 12% higher than the corresponding three months of last year at 24.2 MMboe, although both periods were impacted by cyclone activity in the northwest of WA.
