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O’Neill said the quarter’s result was helped by Woodside’s ability to transfer excess gas from its Pluto field to the adjacent underutilised North West Shelf LNG plant near Karratha, increasing production by 2.3 million BOE.
Woodside is doubling the size of the Pluto LNG plant to process gas from the Scarborough field.
“Overall, the Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 projects combined were 21 per cent complete at the end of the quarter and remain on track for targeted first LNG cargo in 2026,” she said.
Woodside received an average of $US19.10 per million British thermal units for the gas it exported, compared to $US9.70 a year ago.Credit:Woodside
Off the coast of Senegal, Woodside is developing the Sangomar oil project.
“The subsea installation campaign began in September and development drilling progressed, with six of the planned 23 wells now complete,” O’Neill said.
“The project was 70 per cent complete at quarter end with first oil targeted for the second half of 2023.”
Traditionally Woodside has focussed on selling gas to Asia but during the past quarter has made further moves to increase its exposure to the Atlantic Basin trade.
“Woodside entered into a long-term sale and purchase agreement with Uniper Global Commodities to supply LNG from our global portfolio from 2023 into Europe, where buyers are urgently seeking alternatives to Russian gas,” O’Neill said.
“We also signed an SPA for supply from the proposed Commonwealth LNG export facility in Louisiana.”
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Woodside shares were up 5.13 per cent to $34.22 a share in late morning trading on Thursday.
Santos’ third quarter revenue of $US2.15 billion ($3.343 billion) was also boosted by the global gas crunch, up 88 per cent from a year ago. Its LNG on average is fetching 62 per cent more than a year ago.
Free cash flow of more than $1 billion ($1.6 billion) for the quarter has helped the Adelaide-based company reduce its gearing to less than 21 per cent.
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher said energy security was a top priority in Australia’s region.
“Given the ongoing strong customer demand for our product
now and into the future, Australia’s role as a major energy-producing nation has never been more important,” he said.
Santos shares were up 1.8 per cent to $7.51 a share.
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