PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Woodside has reported a 73% increase in production volumes for the full year ended December, driving a 142% increase in operating revenue and a 172% increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda).

Woodside on Monday reported that production during the full year had increased to 157.7-million barrels of oil equivalent, with a significant contribution coming from the BHP petroleum assets acquired last year.

Higher production and higher commodity prices saw operating revenue increase to $16.8-billion, while Ebitda reached $11.2-billion.

Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said Woodside’s strategy delivered exceptional results in 2022, reflecting the success of the merger with BHP’s petroleum business, completed at the start of June.

“Woodside is now a larger, geographically diverse energy company with the financial and operational strength to grow our portfolio of high-quality assets while continuing to deliver returns to shareholders.

“In what was a momentous year for Woodside we achieved the goals we set ourselves ahead of the merger, implementing initiatives to deliver the targeted $400-million in synergies ahead of our original schedule.

“Woodside’s record output was underpinned by outstanding performance at our liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets, which achieved 98.5% reliability across the year. A total of 9.4-million barrels of oil equivalent was processed via the Pluto- Karratha gas plant Interconnector, resulting in the supply of 13 additional Pluto LNG cargoes and delivering $1.2-billion of incremental revenue.

“Our net profit after tax rose on the back of the increased production and sales delivered by the expanded portfolio and higher global prices for our products. In 2022 our realised price rose 63% year-on-year to $98.4 per barrel of oil equivalent.”

O’Neill said that throughout the year, Woodside took steps to maximise its exposure to favourable prices, expanding its global marketing presence and increasing trading activities.

As a result, exposure to gas hub pricing for produced LNG sales was 23%.  

“As a result of our increased profit, Woodside’s Australian tax and royalty payments for the year more than tripled to A$2.7-billion. We are proud to be making this record contribution back to the local communities where we operate and our Australian tax payments are expected to again increase significantly in 2023.

“The Bass Strait assets acquired in the merger supply around 20% of the gas consumed in eastern Australia. With the emergence of crisis conditions in the east coast energy market last winter, we took steps to ensure maximum volumes were available for supply to customers on both a term and spot basis.”

O’Neill said on Monday that during the year under review, Woodside made significant progress on its major growth projects, with seven of the planned 23 wells now completed at the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 offshore Senegal.

“In 2023, we expect to complete subsea installation and relocate the floating production storage and offloading facility from Singapore, ahead of targeted first oil late in the year,” she said.

“In Western Australia the Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 projects are now 25% complete and they remain on track for targeted first LNG production in 2026. This year we will focus on progressing secondary regulatory approvals, continuing fabrication of Pluto Train 2, and starting work on subsea installation and drilling operations.

“Our project teams did an outstanding job this year delivering tiebacks to our Western Australian LNG assets and installing the Shenzi subsea multi-phase pump, which will improve production rates and recovery, ahead of schedule and under budget.

“In 2023 we are also aiming to progress Woodside’s pipeline of growth opportunities, including at Trion, offshore Mexico. We are evaluating bids for major work scopes, finalising execution plans and narrowing cost estimates in support of final investment decision (FID) readiness targeted this year.

“We are also preparing for FID readiness at our H2OK project in Oklahoma in 2023. H2OK would be the first major project to be sanctioned under Woodside’s target to invest $5-billion in new energy products and lower-carbon services by 2030.”

The H2OK project involves construction of an initial 290 MW facility, which will use electrolysis to produce up to 90 t/d of liquid hydrogen for the heavy transport sector.

Looking ahead at 2023, Woodside is targeting a capital spend of between $6-billion and $6.5-billion in the 2023 financial year. In terms of production, Woodside is targeting between 180-million and 190-million barrels of oil equivalent.