AUSTRALIA'S WOODSIDE LOOSES $4 BLN

ENERDATA - 16 Jul 2020 - The Australian independent gas producer Woodside Petroleum has announced non-cash, post-tax impairment losses of US$3.92bn, including US$2.76bn for oil and gas properties (Pluto, NWS Gas, Wheatstone, Okha, Ngujima-Yin in Australia and Sangomar in Senegal) and US$1.16bn for exploration and evaluation assets (WA-404-P, WA-430-P and Sunrise in Australia, and Kitimat LNG in Canada), leading to a post-tax loss of US$4.37bn. The company will also recognise a non-cash, post-tax onerous contract provision for the Corpus Christi LNG sale and purchase agreement of US$447m.

In March 2020, Woodside decided to reduce its planned expenditure in 2020 by around 50% to AUD2.4bn (US$1.5bn), including a 60% cut in investment expenses to AUD 1.7-1.9bn (US$1-1.2bn), and its operating spending by AUD100m (US$61m), due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fall in oil prices. To reduce its expenditure, Woodside will defer the major turnaround for the trains 3 and 4 of its Karratha Gas Plant (NorthWest Shelf LNG plant), to September 2020 and August 2021, respectively. In addition, Woodside Petroleum will postpone a final investment decision (FID) on its 6 Mt/year Scarborough LNG project and on the 5 Mt/year expansion of its 5 Mt/year Pluto LNG from mid-2020 to 2021. Moreover, Woodside Petroleum delayed to an unknown date the FID for the 3.9 Mt/year Browse LNG project worth AUD30bn (US$18.2bn). In October 2019, the company already deferred the FID from late 2020 to the first half of 2021.

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