Woodside Energy Group Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Invest better with AI
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👉 More detailed insights
👉 Exclusive perspectives on opportunities & risks
👉 Clear answers to your questions
Invest better with AI
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👉 More detailed insights
👉 Exclusive perspectives on opportunities & risks
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF)
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF shows how many years it would take for a company to "pay back" its enterprise value using its free cash flow.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It focuses on real cash generation, ignoring accounting noise — ideal for assessing profitability and value based on liquidity, not earnings.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF may signal undervaluation and strong cash generation.
- A high EV/FCF might reflect weak recent cash flow or aggressive growth expectations.
- Best suited for stable, mature businesses with predictable free cash flows.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Dividend per Share (DPS)
📈 What is it?
Dividend per Share shows how much cash a company pays out to shareholders for each share they own – usually on an annual or quarterly basis.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
DPS is the absolute value of the payout per share – crucial for income-focused investors and dividend strategies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable or growing DPS often signals a strong, shareholder-friendly business.
- DPS alone doesn’t tell you how attractive the payout is – the stock price also matters (→ see Dividend Yield).
- Long-term dividend growth is often a hallmark of high-quality companies – like the dividend aristocrats.
📘 Dividend Yield
📈 What is it?
Dividend yield shows how large a company’s dividend is in relation to its current share price.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It allows investors to compare dividend payouts across stocks, regardless of price or payout size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable yield can reflect reliable distributions.
- Comparing 1Y and 5Y yield shows whether dividend growth keeps pace with stock price appreciation.
- A low yield isn’t always negative – it can signal strong past performance or growth focus.
📘 Dividend Growth
📈 What is it?
Dividend growth shows how much a company has increased its dividend per share over time.
🧮 How is it calculated?
5Y: Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
🏛️ Why is it important?
Consistently rising dividends are often a sign of financial strength and shareholder orientation – especially relevant for long-term investors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stable dividend growth is a sign of sustainable earning power.
- High dividend growth can significantly boost your total return:
- If a company pays $1 in dividends and increases it by 15% annually over 5 years, you’ll receive $2 per share in year 5 – twice as much as at the start!
📘 Payout Ratio
📈 What is it?
The payout ratio shows what percentage of a company’s earnings (per share) is distributed to shareholders as dividends.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess whether the dividend is sustainable – especially in relation to the company’s profitability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low payout ratio means the company retains more earnings for reinvestment – typical for growth companies.
- A moderate payout (e.g. 25–50%) indicates a healthy balance between returns and reinvestment.
- High payout ratios may seem attractive but can carry risk if earnings decline.
📘 Consecutive Dividend Increases
📈 What is it?
This metric shows how many consecutive years a company has raised its dividend per share – without any cuts or pauses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(Special dividends are not considered.)
🏛️ Why is it important?
A long track record of increases reflects financial strength, consistency, and shareholder commitment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A long dividend increase streak builds confidence – especially in volatile markets.
- Such companies are seen as reliable and income-friendly investments.
- The longer the streak, the stronger the company’s dividend discipline.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow shows how much actual cash remains after a company covers its operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s real financial strength – regardless of accounting profits. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow means the company generates real, usable cash – independent of reported net income.
- It’s often the most reliable base for sustainable dividends and buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be an early warning sign – even when profits appear stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free cash flow margin
📈 What is it?
The free cash flow (FCF) margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as actual free cash after covering all operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This margin reflects the true liquidity generated by the business – independent of accounting rules or depreciation. It’s especially relevant for dividends, buybacks, and reinvestment decisions.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high FCF margin means a company consistently generates strong cash flow.
- It’s a positive signal for financial stability and shareholder returns.
- The long-term trend is key – a declining margin may indicate rising investments or weakening operating efficiency.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Turnover per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
Woodside Energy Group Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
17 Analysts have issued a Woodside Energy Group forecast:
Analyst Opinions
17 Analysts have issued a Woodside Energy Group forecast:
Woodside Energy Group Events
Past Events
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AUG
24
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about one month ago
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APR
22
Shareholder/Analyst Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
5 months ago
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MAR
15
Special Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
6 months ago
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2025 Earnings Call
7 months ago
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NOV
4
Analyst/Investor Day - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
11 months ago
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Woodside Energy Group — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Woodside Energy Group Limited Half Year 2026 Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Liz Westcott, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to Woodside Half Year Results Presentation. Joining me on today's call is our Chief Financial Officer, Graham Tiver. We are presenting from Sydney, and I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respects to their elders, past and present.
Now please take time to read the disclaimers, assumptions and other important information on Slides 2 and 3. And I'd also like to remind you that all dollar figures in today's presentation are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated.
It's a great pleasure to present my first set of results as Woodside's CEO. I'm proud of the way we have delivered reliably and consistently through our company leadership transition and during a time of historic volatility on global energy markets. This continues our proven track record as a reliable supplier to customers and highlights the competitive advantages we have developed over 40-plus years of operations. Woodside's core value proposition remains, we supply energy to meet rising demand, return value for our shareholders through the cycle and offer tangible growth catalysts for investors.
At our Capital Markets Day in November, we outlined Woodside's transformative growth pathway to achieve more than 50% sales growth and approximately $9 billion in net operating cash flow in 2032. And my focus as CEO is on the disciplined delivery of this pathway while raising the bar further to translate future growth into greater value for our shareholders.
There are some key areas where Woodside can build from our strengths, to lift performance, sharpen our focus on value and improve the resilience of our business through the cycle. These include active management of our portfolio to maximize returns on capital with all investment opportunities competing under a single framework for shareholder value. Our investment choices in new energy must be underpinned by customer demand and market commerciality. We must also achieve structural cost savings across our business, driven by an ambitious and transparent cost-out target.
We are announcing today a structural cost reduction target of USD 350 million per year to be delivered from 2028. Later in the presentation, I will provide more detail on how we will sharpen our focus on value. But first, to our half year results, which reflect Woodside's impressive operational and financial performance to date in 2026. These results demonstrate how we are derisking our business today and driving long-term shareholder value.
As shown on Slide 6, reliable operations underpin strong production and cash flow across our global portfolio. We achieved total production of 86.5 million barrels of oil equivalent for the half. Free cash flow achieved a year-on-year increase of more than 150%, and we maintained strong EBITDA of $4.6 billion. Regrettably, we experienced one high consequence injury during the period. We made significant progress on our next phase of value, advancing major projects at Scarborough, Trion and Louisiana LNG on schedule and on budget. We recorded an underlying net profit after tax of $1.3 billion. And based on this, the Board has determined a fully franked interim dividend of USD 0.57 per share, once again at the top end of our payout range.
Slide 7 highlights Woodside's world-class delivery during the half, underpinned by reliable operations and disciplined investment in growth. At Pluto, we safely executed a major planned turnaround on schedule and within budget, which included works to prepare for Scarborough. Our unit production costs remained competitive, notwithstanding the significant turnaround activity. We continue to efficiently execute our major projects with a strong focus on cost management, remaining on schedule and budget.
We also continue to strengthen the quality of our global portfolio, sharpening our focus on opportunities that play to Woodside's strengths and offer value-accretive growth. During the period, we exercised our preemption right, which will result in increased equity in Browse on completion. Woodside's combined interest in the Browse resource and the North West Shelf onshore infrastructure provides the basis for an integrated development concept with long-term cash flow potential.
Subsequent to the half, in July, we assumed operatorship of the Gippsland Basin assets, supporting the continued reliable supply of gas to the Australian domestic market. And in August, we agreed to divest our interest in the Calypso project in Trinidad and Tobago, demonstrating our prudent approach to portfolio management and capital allocation.
Keeping our people safe remains our highest priority at Woodside, and we continue striving for sustained improvement in our safety performance. During the half, we completed more than 11 million work hours, including construction, commissioning and complex turnarounds at our global operating and project sites.
As shown on Slide 8, we recorded one high consequence injury and zero Tier 1 or Tier 2 process safety events. One high consequence injury is one too many, and we remain firmly focused on continuous improvement and management of risk across our operations. This includes proactively managing risk and leveraging field leadership programs to provide deeper insights to our performance.
Turning now to our operational performance on Slide 9. The first half once again showcased Woodside's operational excellence and proven ability to maximize value from our producing assets, which delivered $3 billion in operating cash flow during the period. We are making good progress on decommissioning across the portfolio. We commenced plug and abandonment on 8 subsea wells at the North West Shelf and Julimar-Brunello and removed around 26 kilometers of flow lines and umbilicals at Stybarrow and Griffin.
At our Australian operations, we are executing infill opportunities across Pluto, Julimar Phase 3 and Turrum Phase 3, supporting continued value creation from our existing infrastructure and assets. Woodside is assessing the opportunity in our Gippsland Basin assets to unlock up to 200 petajoules of potential [indiscernible] Gas, supporting domestic energy security and creating additional value from the portfolio. Technical maturity and final details of the Australian Government's proposed domestic gas reservation scheme will influence whether we progress this opportunity to a final investment decision.
Our International portfolio performed very well over the half, led by exceptional ongoing performance at Sangomar, which produced 15 million barrels of oil equivalent Woodside share at 99.5% reliability. The asset has now generated $3.8 billion of EBITDA for Woodside since start-up. We are continuing our discussions with PETROSEN and the Government of Senegal on a potential additional phase, which we estimate could be a 6- to 8-well program. At Beaumont New Ammonia, we assumed operational control in March and are delivering cargoes to domestic and international markets. During the half, production was constrained by third-party feedstock availability with impacts expected to continue through 2027.
Moving to delivery of our major projects on Slide 10. We continue to make excellent progress on the Scarborough Energy project, which was 98% complete at the end of the half and remains on track for first LNG cargo in the fourth quarter of 2026. Subsequent to the period, the floating production unit achieved ready for start-up status and first gas, marking another significant milestone as we move closer to production.
Onshore, we continued construction and commissioning at Pluto Train 2. Mechanical runs have been completed on 3 of the 6 liquefaction compressors with the remaining activities progressing as planned. Our focus is now on disciplined execution through to startup. We are progressively bringing wells online, pressurizing the trunk line and introducing gas into the onshore facilities while testing and verifying each part of the system. We are taking the time to ensure we bring these facilities online safely and reliably as we move towards first LNG cargo and a significant new source of cash-generative production to our portfolio.
Moving to our Trion project on Slide 11, which was 64% complete at the end of the half and targeting first oil in 2028. During the half, we achieved key construction and drilling milestones. Engineering of the floating storage and offloading facility is progressing to plan with fabrication underway and major equipment ordered. Preparations are now well advanced for the subsea installation campaign with equipment set to be delivered ahead of offshore installation commencing in the third quarter of 2026.
Turning to Slide 12. Louisiana LNG continues to progress on schedule and budget and was 28% complete at the end of the half. We achieved several key construction milestones, including commencement of first dredging, installing the first mechanical equipment in Train 1, which was 35% complete at the end of the half and erecting the first structural steel in Train 2. We are also advancing feed gas procurement in line with our gas supply strategy. Williams, our partner and pipeline operator, is progressing execution of Line 200. We continue to see strong interest from potential counterparties across both sell-downs and LNG offtake and our approach remains focused on the quality partnerships required for this long-term investment. Strong sustainability performance remains fundamental to the long-term success of our business, and we made good progress in key areas during the half.
Having achieved our 2025 net equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, we remain on track to meet our 2030 target of a 30% reduction against our baseline. We submitted our second annual Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 implementation plan, including enhanced methane emissions reporting at our Sangomar and North West Shelf operations.
During the half, we continued making significant economic and social contributions to the communities where we operate. We paid more than AUD 1 billion in taxes, royalties and levies to Australian governments during the half and committed to more than AUD 520 million of spend with almost 300 local businesses during our Pluto Train 1 modifications program. Subsequent to the period, we launched our inaugural global indigenous people strategy, setting out our intent to strengthen partnerships and support positive outcomes for indigenous peoples across the regions where we operate. We also took forward biodiversity initiatives in the United States and Australia. In Louisiana, we committed $5 million over 6 years to the Sam Houston Jones State Park restoration project, while in Western Australia, we continue to progress the Watheroo Biodiversity Project.
Moving to Slide 14. Woodside has continued to deliver during a period of significant volatility in global energy markets. The temporary withdrawal of 20% of LNG supply and 13% of oil supply from global markets as a result of the Middle East conflict drove increased customer demand for Woodside's products. Brent and JKM pricing have both moderated from initial price spikes in March and April. However, restricted supply and price volatility are expected to continue for some time. We achieved an average realized price of $74 per barrel of oil equivalent through our contracted positions and premiums achieved on crude products. Cyclone-related production impacts and planned Pluto turnaround curtailed available Woodside volumes during the period, which limited our exposure to the spot market.
Our Marketing and Trading division continued to optimize the portfolio across multiple trades to manage risk and maximize value while fulfilling customer commitments. Some of these trades were across the reporting period. We see tailwinds for the second half from this trading as well as pricing lags on our oil-linked LNG contracted volumes. Ongoing gas hub exposure, combined with our established customer relationships and growing shipping fleet position us well to drive additional value moving forward. With about 75% of our LNG volumes contracted through to 2028, we will remain a reliable provider to existing customers who value security of supply. Long-term structural demand outlook for LNG as a reliable, flexible and versatile energy source remains, notwithstanding the impact of recent supply shortages on demand from some price-sensitive markets.
Wood Mackenzie continues to forecast ongoing robust demand growth in Asia through to the 2040s as these economies seek LNG to support baseload power, industrial use and grid stability. Wood Mackenzie has also revised upwards its long-term European gas demand forecast in each of the past 4 years. This indicates how advanced economies with net zero targets continue to see an important role for natural gas, including LNG, to complement renewables and support energy security. Woodside's portfolio featuring highly reliable assets with diversified points of supply, underpinned by long-term customer relationships in major energy markets is well placed to meet this demand.
I'll now hand over to Graham to take you through our financial highlights before outlining how we're positioning Woodside for the next phase.
Thanks, Liz, and hello, everyone. I'm pleased to present another impressive set of financial results today, achieved during a turbulent period for global energy markets. Our performance over the first half was characterized by strong cash generation and proactive debt management, positioning us well to capture the benefits of production and pricing upside in the second half of 2026.
During an expected period of high expenditure due to project execution and planned turnarounds, we took early action at the start of the year to actively manage our balance sheet to protect downside price risk. This involves starting the year with strong liquidity and our routine hedging program. We maintained our investment-grade credit rating and retained significant exposure to the upside, and we are anticipating strong cash generation in the second half.
Slide 18 shows the underlying financial strength of our business. During a period of high prices, we were able to generate additional revenue whilst continuing to execute planned turnarounds and manage adverse weather outcomes, which reduced available production volumes. Our reliable and cost competitive base business has driven the positive trend you can see across the financial indicators. This includes growth in operating revenue, net profit after tax and return on equity and a resilient EBITDA of approximately $4.6 billion. While we achieved higher revenue due to elevated commodity prices, year-on-year EBITDA performance reflects increased operating costs on the commencement of Beaumont New Ammonia, Pluto turnaround, or the planned turnaround costs and timing of trading margins.
Our healthy balance sheet with free cash flow of $352 million and liquidity of $8.2 billion keeps us well positioned to navigate volatility in global energy markets while continuing to fund near-term growth and return value to our shareholders. Our current capital management framework has served us well, providing clear guardrails to support financial discipline and deliver enduring shareholder returns. However, as Liz mentioned earlier, we will review and test the framework against our evolving business to ensure a disciplined capital strategy. We continue to exercise strong cost control across our business, but we are not standing still and we will always look for opportunities to improve.
Gearing at the end of the year was 20.6%, reflecting new lease liabilities, net hedge cash settlements and trade receivables not converted into cash at 30 June '26. This is marginally outside our target 10% to 20% range. But as we've previously noted, our capital management framework provides flexibility to sit temporarily outside of this range during capital-intensive periods. Our approach is anchored by an investment-grade credit rating and an established dividend policy with a targeted 50% to 80% payout range.
Slide 20 provides further detail on our balance sheet strength with $8.2 billion in cash and undrawn facilities at the end of the half. As you can see, we've maintained strong liquidity throughout the past 5 years across changing market conditions and expenditure on major growth projects. In the current environment, our strong balance sheet provides an important buffer against global supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures and price volatility. Cash-generating capacity of our assets, active management of our debt portfolio and sell-downs last year of our Louisiana LNG project have all contributed to our position. $1.7 billion in capital contributions was received during the half from Stonepeak and Williams for development of Louisiana LNG.
We're particularly pleased that our strong performance over the half has translated into immediate rewards for our shareholders. The fully franked interim dividend of USD 0.57 per share is once again at the top end of our targeted payout range, demonstrating our confidence in the strength of the balance sheet to return cash to shareholders while investing in long-term value-accretive growth. We have now returned approximately USD 12 billion to our shareholders since the completion of our merger with BHP's petroleum business in 2022. Our focus on financial discipline and strong capital management will continue to underpin Woodside's long-term profitability and continued delivery of returns to our shareholders.
Thank you, and I'll now hand back to Liz.
Thanks, Graham. I'll conclude today's presentation by explaining how we are evolving Woodside's strategic priorities to build on this strong foundation and deliver Woodside's next phase of shareholder value. As I noted at the opening of today's presentation, the underlying strengths that drive Woodside's performance and position us for continued delivery of shareholder value remain unchanged. We're proud of what Woodside is accomplishing, and we're now aiming to set the bar even higher.
On becoming Woodside's CEO in March, I made clear that my priorities would be operational excellence, disciplined execution and sustained value creation. As our portfolio changes in scale, geography and complexity, our approach to these priorities must evolve. We have an opportunity to sharpen how we run the business and position ourselves for the future. Woodside's next phase will be underpinned by disciplined delivery of value. To maintain operational excellence, we are placing an even greater focus on efficiency, cost management and productivity within our operations, alongside our enduring commitments to safety and sustainability.
On disciplined execution, we must extract full value from our growth projects by delivering them to schedule and budget, transitioning them smoothly into high-performing operations and optimizing their revenue through enhanced marketing and trading capabilities. And to deliver sustained value creation, we are applying an ever sharper focus on portfolio quality, ensuring capital is directed to the highest value opportunities. Together, these strategic priorities provide a clear framework for Woodside's future.
Our sharper positioning on discipline and value is already translating into tangible actions. As our major growth projects progress and transition towards operations and cash flow generation, we are refocusing our capital strategy and managing our portfolio to maximize returns on capital. Our investments must all compete for capital equally and strong returns on that capital must be achieved for the benefit of our shareholders. A single investment framework will guide investment decisions. New energy opportunities must be supported by clear customer demand and commercial markets. They must also compete for capital with other investment opportunities. This discipline has led to our decision to undertake a strategic review of Beaumont New Ammonia. This asset was acquired in a global environment with line of sight to a developing market for lower carbon ammonia, including the international regulatory frameworks required to support that market.
Significant changes in the global environment over the past 12 months have changed this underlying premise. Now that the asset has moved into the operating phase, it is the optimal time to review its place in our global portfolio. We will explore all options to determine the best value for Woodside. We are also applying a disciplined approach to sustainability, ensuring our plans and commitments continue to support Woodside's long-term resilience and value. This includes having balanced and achievable climate targets, which align with the pace of the global energy transition.
Our 2030 net equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target remains unchanged as does our broader commitment to decarbonizing Woodside's own operations. This aligns with Woodside's conviction that LNG has a key role in meeting long-term energy demand and global decarbonization goals. However, we have taken the disciplined decision to retire our Scope 3 investment and emissions abatement targets. These targets were established in a different market context and based on a different expected pace of the energy transition. The reality is that markets for emerging lower carbon opportunities, including hydrogen, ammonia and carbon capture and storage have developed more slowly than anticipated. Therefore, the targets no longer align with evolving technology, current policy settings and customer demand.
Finally, we are focused on improving our business effectiveness to keep our business resilient through the cycle. The structured review of our business I announced in April, has identified opportunities to improve business effectiveness and leverage efficiencies as key assets move from project delivery into operations and others enter later life production. We are building a simpler organization that can make decisions faster, allocate resources more effectively and deliver services as they are needed across our global portfolio. We are pursuing an annual cost-out target of $350 million to be delivered from 2028, including overhead and operational cost savings from our base business. These early actions represent a disciplined evolution of our strategy as we look to sharpen Woodside's focus, lift our performance and position our business for long-term success.
To conclude, Woodside's renewed focus on discipline and value is a considered evolution of our existing strategy and investment proposition. Our operational excellence and financial strength are returning value to shareholders today, while disciplined delivery of our major growth projects is building the production and cash generation platform for tomorrow. We have actions underway that leverage our proven capabilities and build on our strengths and we have set a clear cost towards building a stronger Woodside that can deliver enduring value for our shareholders.
Thank you. And I'll now open the call to your questions. Please limit your questions to two each. So everybody has an opportunity to ask their questions.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Tom Allen with UBS.
2. Question Answer
So just following up your comments, Liz, that Woodside today announced it's abandoned plans to spend $5 billion on new energy projects by 2030, and you've announced a strategic review of Beaumont New Ammonia. Just given that was the first key project relevant to that target, can you share some comments on whether that would potentially seek a full divestment or a partial sale only? And then the extension of that question would be over Louisiana LNG, that was quite a different project structure to what we've typically seen for U.S. Gulf Coast LNG projects with Woodside retaining as an upstream E&P, quite high equity exposure in the infrastructure and even through the Holdco, Were there any plans to revisit the structure of Louisiana LNG as well?
Okay. Thank you, Tom. So starting off with Beaumont New Ammonia. Now Beaumont New Ammonia is a high-quality asset, and it's now in operations and it's approaching important milestones over the course of '26. So the asset though was acquired in a different global environment to the one we're in today. And so it's important, I think, to reflect the changes that we've had in the last 12 months. And that's why we've announced the strategic review of the asset. We are going to look at all options to determine the best value option for Woodside. So there's no determined pathway today.
Your second question around the structure of Louisiana LNG. You're right to say that Woodside has had this opportunity to approach the Louisiana LNG investment differently to others. And importantly, having a balance sheet that can support an investment of this scale, we've been able to bring in holdco partners across the project to support both the capital reduction, and today, we sit with Stonepeak and Williams having reduced the capital exposure for Woodside down to 57% of the total investment, so $9.9 billion. And we also have portfolio marketing capabilities that we're able to exercise to achieve the value that we see in this asset. And so there's no planned change to the structure of the project as we continue to look for holdco participants to join us in this asset.
Okay. That's clear. And you did note that all projects are competing for capital in your basis for conducting the strategic review of Beaumont. And so over the quarter, Woodside's preempted on the sale of PetroChina's on 6%, 7% stake in Browse and Woodside's continue to progress environmental approvals. Could you please comment on Woodside's target time line to progress the Browse project towards an FID and perhaps some color on the targeted CapEx, including for the CO2 and targeted returns for the project?
Extending your two questions. So the Browse project is still early stage. We are in pre-feed on Browse. And so the teams continue to work 3 streams of work. making sure we have an investable project and we've got EPC contractors providing cost and schedule outlooks and designs to our project team today. We continue to work environmental approvals with submissions that have been made in the last half, both to the WA, EPA and the Federal Government in that regard. And then we continue commercial discussions between the Browse joint venture partners and the Northwest Shelf. And the preemption that we made with INPEX was to ensure that ongoing opportunity to develop Browse through the North West Shelf project. And for Woodside shareholders where we have equity in both the upstream and the North West Shelf project, this is a highly value-accretive development concept. So that's where we sit with Browse.
The second question was around time lines. On the CapEx profile -- so I'm just checking with -- could you just repeat your question, Tom, so I get it right.
Yes. So it was the time line to progress towards an FID and some color on the indicative total CapEx, including for the CO2 solution?
Yes, okay. So time lines are still ahead of us. So being in pre-feed, we now -- we need to move through feed before we have FID. So those are still decisions to become. And total CapEx will also be informed through the work that's been done today by the EPC providers. So we've got nothing further to add on that.
Your next question comes from Nik Burns with Jarden Australia.
Just a question on the move to a single capital allocation framework. Historically, your presentations have included a slide that outlines that framework, we show different IRR and payback times for oil, gas and new energy. There's obviously no new slide here today. So can you just talk through what the new targets are from an IRR and a payback time perspective?
Yes. So we talked today about moving to a single framework to ensure that all of our capital is competing equally for investment dollars with Woodside. And the review of the capital strategy is going to be more holistic. It's looking at capital management and capital allocation. We're going to make sure every dollar is deployed efficiently and we'll be looking at how we measure and consider risk as well as the maximizing shareholder returns. And so it's going to be a comprehensive strategy, and it won't be similar to the one we had before.
Do you have a timing on when you're planning on releasing that?
Yes. I think, Nik, Capital Markets Day will come out with more information on our capital strategy.
Got it. And I guess on to my second question is really around that $350 million cost out target. Just obviously, there's not a lot of details in terms of how you're going to achieve that. But and I'm guessing we'll get an update at the Capital Markets Day as well. But high level, can you talk through about -- are you targeting operating costs only here? Or would there be a CapEx component in there? And you mentioned from 2028, but is there a potential that we could -- the market could see some of those cost realizations or the lower cost coming through, say, in the intervening 18-month period? Or is it really those cost savings are only coming through from 2028 onwards?
Yes. So in April, we talked about the structured review that we were kicking off for the organization. And today, we've been able to clarify that we see line of sight to USD 350 million to be delivered from 2028. This is going to be through making a simpler organization. It's about working smarter. So making decisions faster, allocating resources more effectively. And we see this as a structured cost out of our base business. It will be a combination of operating costs, corporate overheads as well as some sustaining CapEx. So we see it as a sustained process, and that's why we've outlined that the savings will commence from 2028. We want to make sure that the efforts we undertake in this regard are sustained through the business going forward.
Your next question comes from Saul Kavonic with MST.
Liz, could you elaborate a little bit the -- I guess, the scope for this cost out program? And why is there the opportunity to do that now as opposed to having already started on something of this a few years ago?
Yes. So to build on my earlier comments there. So the scope is across Woodside's business, and we're looking at structured cost out of our base operating business to make us more efficient and more resilient through the cycle. And so we've got work streams identifying cost out of operating businesses, corporate parts of the business as well as our sustaining portfolio. And so teams will be working on initiatives to drive cost out of our business over the course of time with the expected savings from 2028.
Are you expecting that for the Capital Markets Day on the 6th of November, are you confident we could have a sell-down announcement for Louisiana in place by then?
So the Louisiana project, where we remain positive and happy with how discussions are going on sell-down and on FOB offtake at Louisiana. We've got strong interest from counterparties and continue to see a number of parties interested in Louisiana. But we are being patient, and we're making sure we have high-quality partners that will join this long-term investment with us. So we're taking a disciplined approach. We do know that we brought Stonepeak in, we brought Williams in, and that's made a material difference to the capital exposure for Woodside and given us the time to ensure we have the right partners going forward.
Just last one. It's been reported in the AFR that are one of Woodside's four directors didn't disclose this outside business interest to the full Board earlier this year and that again you failed to do so last week. Do you consider this behavior to be consistent with the high governance standards you and investors should expect from your Board?
So let me assure all of our investors that the executive, the Board and the directors all take governance very seriously. And we can assure you all that we're committed to strong processes. So any outside activities are considered by directors, any particular appointments are considered by the Board as appropriate, and we continue to manage any conflicts as appropriate.
Are you saying [indiscernible] reports are incorrect then?
I'm saying that any potential appointment of directors to Boards is something that will be discussed. And to date, the Mark Cutifani appointment to the Northern Star Board remains highly speculative. And there's no discernible conflicts of interest between Woodside and Northern Star businesses.
Your next question comes from Gordon Ramsay with RBC.
My question relates to Sangomar. You made a comment that you were looking at a 6- to 8-well program. I'm assuming that's targeting the S400 sands and you're in discussions with the government. Can you just confirm that? But also whether you're looking at potentially backfill for the project or even expansion over time?
Yes. So Gordon, as we mentioned in the remarks, we are looking at a Phase 2 project, and we continue our discussions with both PETROSEN and the Senegalese Government on such a program. We do see maybe a 6- to 8-well program. And so that would be an opportunity to backfill the existing facilities. So we don't see an expansion of the nameplate capacity at the field, but the opportunity to continue producing at high rates.
Gordon, the FPSO is 100,000 barrels a day, and this is all about backfill extending the period of its life.
And then secondly, just on the strategic review. Obviously, the projects that are in the new energy area, I'm assuming our focus on that. You specifically mentioned Beaumont New Ammonia. What about hydrogen, where does Woodside sit with that at the moment?
So we're going to continue to explore new energy opportunities and hydrogen would be amongst that Ammonia, CCS have been opportunities that we continue to explore, but as we develop our portfolio, we have to be very driven by where customers are looking and where the commercial markets are developing. So we're going to be very disciplined in where we're going to allocate capital to those portfolios. As I've mentioned before, all our investments will need to compete for capital, and so we're going to need strong returns for the benefit of all our shareholders.
Your next question comes from Adam Martin with E&P.
Just a question just on Louisiana, obviously Holdco is on the hook for any CapEx overruns given the contribution [indiscernible] . Just any sort of color or commentary on just sort of implications of this whole Middle East situation. I'm just thinking about inflation and that and obviously, the Holdco selldown been going on for quite some time. So just any comments there, please?
Yes. So Louisiana continues to progress well, maybe starting with the actual project and the construction. It's a lump sum turnkey contract under Bechtel, and Bechtel have some steel fabrication in particular, that they have continued to fabricate in the Middle East. Fabrication remains unaffected from their perspective. And so they've been working on alternative supply routes to get that steel to the U.S. That's continued to be successful. And Bechtel have also got opportunities to fabricate steel in the U.S. or in Vietnam as other locations that they work from. So we remain comfortable with how Bechtel is responding to the impacts on their supply chain, recognizing fabrication continues, and we have sufficient steel on site to continue the fabrication we need to.
The second part to your question around the sell-downs. Look, we continue to be in good discussions with a number of parties on sell-downs and Louisiana continues to be an attractive project for many. And so we're being patient and working through the details. It is a complex investment. And so the parties are taking their time to make sure they understand it, and we're looking for long-term strategic partners here. So we want to make sure we have a good fit going forward in our investment.
Okay. Just a second question, as on date in EBITDA still being generated from the Bass Strait. Obviously, you spent time there as well. Because this whole domestic gas reservation policy, where you're asking in terms of taking opportunities in the best rate, trying to improve production over the next few years, please?
Yes. So moving to domestic gas on the East Coast, where we are a material operator. The Bass Strait assets account for 40% of the domestic gas, Woodside's equity is 20%. We're firmly of the view Australia needs new gas supply. And so we are working collaboratively with the government on their national reservation scheme as they're continuing to design it. The goal being that, that would incentivize new supply. It will strengthen energy security and continue our role as a reliable energy supplier. The opportunities we see in Bass Strait, 200 petajoule gas development, 4-well development, we're under no illusion that they're going to be materially impacted by the gas reservation policy coming forward. And so we're keenly awaiting further details.
Your next question comes from Rob Koh with Morgan Stanley.
Can I just ask a question in relation to gearing with I think Mr. Tiver saying gearing would be below 20% in the second half, which looks good. Can you maybe just outline any of the key capital elements? Does that include the Chevron asset swap going ahead? Or is it mainly just on the lag in pricing and visibility on trading gains, please?
Yes. So thanks, Rob. Appreciate the question. And it's pretty well all of the above, but what I would say, four elements. So we are set up well for a strong second half of production. The obvious example is Pluto, we finished the turnaround in the first half. So there's no turnaround at Pluto. There's a strong pricing environment. We do have the benefits of the Wheatstone, North West Shelf swap. So there will be some cash coming in relating to that. That is still contingent on a few items to happen on the critical path, but we're comfortable that will happen in the second half.
And then the fourth element is that as we touched on in the presentation, the majority, so 62% of our hedges have cash settled in the first half. So we have a good run in the second half with the strong pricing environment, and that gives us confidence that our gearing will be back under 20% at 31 December '26.
Okay. Great. That's very clear. And then for my second question, I guess we'll probably wait for definitive answers in November at your Capital Markets Day. But if you -- does your capital allocation review extend to things like the long-standing EPS payout ratios and gearing targets? Or is it more just around project returns?
It's all of the above, Rob. So as Liz touched on, we're purposely calling a capital strategy. So it covers our capital allocation framework. It covers our capital management framework, so it really is all of the above. It's comprehensive.
Your next question comes from Uwan Minogue with Barrenjoey.
Just following up more on Sangomar, what do you actually need to see our work through to progress with Stage 2 there? And has anything changed since the Capital Markets Day last year?
Yes. Thanks for your question. So Sangomar continues to be a really strong asset for us. And as we can see, we are in decline, but it continues to perform exceptionally well with high reliability. Our Phase 2 development is now at a stage where we're in discussions with PETROSEN, our joint venture partner in the Senegalese Government. And with their important discussions as we look to progress any further developments. So we've got technical work that we need to ensure we manage alongside discussions with partners and governments before we can move forward.
Okay. That's clear. And then second question, again on Louisiana LNG. Are you actually seeing interest pick up in that sell-down process? Or is -- are we sort of seeing delays given what's going on in the Middle East? What's the actual level of current engagement in that sell-down and off-taking?
Yes. Thanks for the question. So Louisiana, we see strong interest in Louisiana. So we have a number of parties that have needed to focus on securing their short-term supply. It's been a very volatile first half in '26. And so we've been patient with those. And we continue to see a broad range of interest from parties in participation in Louisiana. It's fair to say that getting more vertically integrated in the gas system is an objective of many companies. So whether you're an upstream producer looking to have access to LNG or you're a customer looking to have more upstream exposure, Louisiana provides an opportunity to gain that. And so that's the sort of interest we're seeing.
Your next question comes from Tom Wallington with Citi.
Just wanted to touch on Louisiana. And I guess in the context of looking to sanction brownfield expansion Trains 4 and 5, could you just give us any commentary as to how the thinking has changed the level of commitment that the management team are seeing in further progressing? And I guess by extension and in the context of this streamlined capital management framework, is there any change in the target level of contracted and uncontracted LNG across the portfolio, particularly around the sort of early 2030s period?
Okay. So with Louisiana, the 4 and 5 expansion opportunity is a fully permitted opportunity that we have at that site. It was one of the attractions for this development was the ability to seamlessly, if you like, expand the capability at the site in a brownfield sense. So that remains an opportunity that Woodside is evaluating and considering alongside others for growth in our portfolio.
At our Capital Markets Day, it was the opportunity that we profiled in our forward plans, and it continues to be something that teams are looking at. But our focus really is on Trains 1 to 3 and progressing not just the construction, but the sell-down and the offtake arrangements for those 3 trains. And so that's our ongoing focus.
Moving to your next question around our contracted and uncontracted portfolio and our exposure going forward. We've previously shared that we sit today at a 75% contracted position in the '26 to '28 window. And we continue to see that contracting profiles will enhance as we go forward. So when you're looking into the early 30s, we're at a lower level of contracted volumes today, but that will continue to be layered into the market as we continue our marketing strategy of layering contracts in, and we anticipate being able to update you further on the contracting outlook for those windows.
Your next question comes from Sarah Kerr with Argonaut.
Just my first question might be for Graham. The Perdaman gas contracts embedded TTF derivative resulted in $135 million noncash loss and that unrealized loss was $297 million negative swing from the prior year. So just that given TTF pricing is influenced more by factors such as the Ukraine conflict and European weather conditions than underlying economics of urea production or the WA domestic gas market. I was wondering if Woodside is considering financial hedging or structural changes to that contract to reduce mark-to-market volatility going forward.
Yes. Look, thanks, Sarah. We certainly do understand the volatility through the embedded derivative. Most of the change in the value or the volatility for the period is driven by the long-term view on the TTF. But what I would do is keep bringing it back to the underlying reason for the contract, and that is to provide additional upside to the domestic -- WA domestic gas pricing mechanism. So being linked to that international TTF, which strongly correlates to urea pricing, gives us potential upside over and above the WA DomGas pricing. And that's why we like it. We're very conscious of the volatility. We are not considering any derivatives, if you want to call it, to hedge out the derivative, but it's something we'll always consider and look at into the future.
And my second question, just for you, Liz. So Woodside noted that you're progressing four potential development wells and up to 200 PJs of gas in the Bass Strait. And you said that that's dependent heavily on the Australian Government's proposed domestic gas reservation scheme. So I just wanted to understand what specific price thresholds or reservation caps under the proposed federal scheme would make the 200 PJ infill development uneconomic or cause Woodside to consider proceeding? Alternatively, would Woodside consider co-developing nearby resources such as Emperor Energy's Judith field adjacent to Tuna to approve any economics for backfill?
Thank you. I mean to make investments in our assets, we need to think about the long-term returns that we will gain from those investments. We are talking near $1 billion to make an investment in Bass Strait for additional returns. And so we need line of sight to the investment framework, if you like, the regulatory space, the pricing outlook that we could expect over the years that we would be producing. So the gas reservation policy framework is very important for us to get a sense on how the market will behave and how the market will be priced going forward. So it's really understanding the details that's very important. We can then model that and make our own decisions around the investment attractiveness of what we have, recognizing the comment we've been making this morning around all capital needs to compete. And so we're keen to make sure we've got a really good line of sight on the investment framework.
We are looking at opportunities in Victoria holistically, and we continue to do that. The advantage we see with these four wells is the ability to tie back to our existing infrastructure. And these are targets that have been understood for a long time by the organization. So these are very attractive. But we remain open to other opportunities, and that's going to be guided by our investment framework and the other uses we have for capital.
Your next question comes from Baden Moore with CITIC CLSA.
Can you just give us an update on how you contracted for Scarborough ramp-up? I think first cargo of LNG goes this quarter. Is there any commitments in terms of contracting for the first 6 months? Is there any guide you can give us on that? And then my second question would be just around how to think about this decision on the Scope 3? I mean, is that essentially just an immediate free up of $3 billion of additional capital or liquidity over the next 3 years? Or are there offsets to that number that you could call out just given it doesn't -- hasn't impacted how you're positioning the balance sheet at this result?
Yes. So the -- I mean, the Scarborough projects are very exciting, 98% complete at the end of the half, and we've given you good line of sight to the activities remaining prior to first cargo. As LNG projects come online, there's always commissioning cargoes for quite a period as they build up to sustained ongoing operations, and there will be no difference there for Scarborough. So the joint venture partners are across the details of how that will be managed. And then we anticipate in 2027 moving into sustained operations and commencing cargo delivery under our contracts. So a very similar profile to what you see with LNG projects.
The Scope 3 target, different question. So we had an ambition of spending $5 billion of capital by 2030 on new energy projects. And what we are talking today by retiring the target is recognizing that we don't see line of sight to having commercial value-accretive projects to meet that commitment by 2030. We continue to be interested in new energy opportunities, but we are being very disciplined with where we put our money and our ability to see line of sight today to further investment in new energy that would be commensurate with that $5 billion target is not there. So we haven't reserved money on the balance sheet for that $3 billion or so that would be arguably the money to go. Hence, you don't see an impact on the forward outlook.
Your next question comes from Cameron Needham with Bank of America.
First one, just on Louisiana LNG. So Louisiana LNG President departed back in June. Just keen to ask anything that we should read into that change from a project delivery perspective, i.e., any changes to the execution team, governance or accountability structure underneath the projects?
Yes. Thank you. Look, the Louisiana project is progressing well, and we've taken the opportunity to bring some skilled capability from our Australia LNG operations across to Louisiana. So we have taken two individuals that have worked closely on Scarborough and Pluto across to the Louisiana project, and we are very comfortable with our approach going forward on Louisiana. And so really, individuals make their own decisions about their careers, and we've got good depth in Woodside. So our ability to continue operating there is strong.
Okay. And then second one, just on marketing EBIT. I think you discussed back at the CMD that marketing is typically 10% of total EBIT. I think in H1, you're closer to 3%. So just keen to understand how the result compares to where you thought marketing would be in the first half given the commodity price environment. I appreciate there are some hedge losses in there, but is the gap primarily just some temporary timing that reverses in the second half? Or has the opportunity set for the sort of portfolio optimization actually been weaker than you expected?
Yes. I might pass across to Graham to give you the color on that one.
Yes. Cameron, you're pretty well nailed in your question there in that look -- and Liz touched on it in her opening comments, the cyclones and the Pluto turnaround did curtail the volumes available for the marketing team. It limited their ability to further maximize, I guess, the uplift in pricing in the first half. Having said that, they did work hard, and there were many trades. And through those trades, several of them will cross over into the second half. And so we have a very clear line of sight to more than $100 million of value that will come into the second half relating to trades that were executed in the first half. So I would say, as you touched on, it is very much a timing issue.
There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Ms. Westcott for closing remarks.
Look, thank you very much, everybody, for listening and participating today, and thank you very much for your questions. I very much look forward to speaking with you again at our upcoming engagements, including our Capital Markets Day in Australia on the 5th of November and in the U.S. on the 12th of November. Until then, thanks.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
Woodside Energy Group — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
Strong half: reliable operations, solid cash generation and on‑schedule major projects, with a strategic pivot to tighter capital discipline.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Production: 86.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) for the half.
- EBITDA: $4.6 billion (EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
- Underlying NPAT: $1.3 billion (net profit after tax).
- Free cash flow: $352 million, up >150% year‑on‑year.
- Balance sheet: $8.2 billion liquidity; gearing 20.6% (slightly above 10–20% target).
🎯 What Management Says
- Capital discipline: Introducing a single investment framework so all projects compete equally for capital; full capital strategy update at Capital Markets Day (Nov).
- Cost target: USD 350 million per year structural cost reduction to be delivered from 2028 across operating costs, overheads and some sustaining CapEx.
- Portfolio review: Strategic review of Beaumont New Ammonia (all options on table) and retirement of Scope 3 targets (Scope 3 = indirect upstream/downstream emissions) and the prior $5bn new‑energy by 2030 ambition.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Project timing: Scarborough ~98% complete, on track for first LNG cargo Q4 2026; Trion 64% complete targeting first oil in 2028; Louisiana LNG 28% complete.
- Contracting & cash: ~75% of LNG volumes contracted through 2028; management expects stronger H2 cash generation and gearing below 20% by 31 Dec 2026.
- Risks: supply‑side volatility from the Middle East, weather/turnaround impacts, Beaumont feedstock constraints into 2027 and standard construction/supply‑chain risks.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Beaumont review: CEO confirmed an open strategic review—full divestment or partial sale are both possible; no decision yet.
- Cost‑out detail: $350m is a structured, sustained program (ops, corporate, sustaining CapEx) with savings visible from 2028; more detail at Capital Markets Day.
- Louisiana & Browse: No change to Louisiana project structure; active sell‑down discussions with strong interest but management is patient. Browse is pre‑FEED; FID and total CapEx remain to be defined.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Shareholder impact: Woodside shows strong near‑term cash generation and on‑track project delivery while pivoting to stricter capital allocation and cost discipline; the strategic review of Beaumont and the removal of prior Scope 3/new‑energy targets reduce new‑energy exposure but improve clarity on where capital will be deployed.
Woodside Energy Group — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
1. Management Discussion
Well, good morning, everyone, and a very warm welcome to Woodside's 2026 Annual General Meeting. I'm informed that a quorum is present and formally declare the meeting open. I also open the poll for voting on all items of business.
Can I begin by acknowledging the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
Today's event is a valuable opportunity for Woodside's Board and management to hear directly from our shareholders and respond to your questions.
I am joined on stage this morning by our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Liz Westcott, and Vice President and Group Company Secretary, Damien Gare. Every member of Woodside's Board of Directors is also here in the room. Nick Henry and Leanne Hassell, representing our auditors, PwC, are also present today.
We will take shareholder questions on all items of business in one question and answer session. Only shareholders, their attorneys, proxies and authorised company representatives are entitled to speak and vote at this meeting.
If you are a shareholder or proxyholder joining online, please start submitting your -- any questions you got now. You can do this through the same platform that you're watching the webcast on. Instructions for submitting written questions online are shown on the screen now, and instructions for submitting verbal questions online will be shown shortly.
We'll try to take questions on a broad range of topics. So questions are not taken in the order they are received. Questions submitted online may be grouped together if there are multiple questions on the same topic. And as I said earlier, given the volume of questions we receive, we may not get to answer every question specifically. And as mentioned earlier, and as I'll say again, if you're asking a question in the room, please keep the question brief, and this is not the forum for making speeches other than mine now and Liz' shortly.
So on behalf of the Board, I'd like to update you on Woodside's progress as we position our company to meet growing energy demand and deliver long-term value to all our stakeholders. Since I spoke to you at last year's AGM, geopolitical tensions have worsened and global energy markets have become more volatile. The Middle East conflict and its impact on economies around the world, including here in Australia, has once again highlighted the critical importance of energy security, affordability and reliability. Woodside has been and is a reliable supplier of energy, which Australia and the world now needs more than ever.
In this complex and unpredictable environment, investors are looking for Woodside to build a profitable and resilient business that can deliver consistent long-term returns. And stakeholders are counting on Woodside to deliver our commitments by operating safely, responsibly and sustainably and contributing to local economies and communities. I'm pleased to report that Woodside continues to meet these expectations.
In 2025, we achieved outstanding production and financial results, delivering strong sustainability performance and continued setting the foundations for Woodside's long-term success. This includes the appointment last month of Liz Westcott as Woodside's CEO and Managing Director. We're delighted with Liz's appointment, which followed a seamless transition process after Meg O'Neill departed Woodside in December to accept the role of CEO at BP. Meg led with clarity and conviction during a transformative period for Woodside, and the Board thanks Meg for her valued contribution.
Liz has an exceptional track record of leadership and achievement across more than 30 years in the global energy industry. She is ideally suited to lead Woodside through our next phase of disciplined growth and value creation.
You will have seen our operating results in our annual report and ASX filings, so I won't repeat the numbers here. We've continued Woodside's impressive track record of rewarding those who invest in our company, having now returned approximately $12 billion of dividends to shareholders since our merger with BHP's petroleum business. Importantly, we're delivering those returns while maintaining a strong balance sheet to invest in future growth and value creation.
Amid geopolitical uncertainty and complex energy transition, countries around the world are increasingly prioritizing energy security and affordability alongside decarbonization. Growth in demand for renewables is occurring alongside of, not in place of increased consumption of oil and natural gas, which Woodside expects to remain essential energy sources for decades to come.
Woodside's liquefied natural gas offers Asian economies a reliable and lower carbon alternative to higher greenhouse gas emitting coal, which still accounts for around 90% of the region's power sector emissions. Our domestic gas provides a firming resource for intermittent renewables here in Australia and is a key energy source for the mining and manufacturing sectors that drive our national wealth.
In a volatile global environment, Australia has an important responsibility to remain a reliable energy supplier to regional trading partners. We also have a significant opportunity to develop new gas reserves that could underpin national energy security and sovereign capability.
We are proudly an Australian company, which has and continues to make a significant contribution to our national wealth. We will continue to support our Australian customers, and we will invest for future growth as long as the investment case stacks up. An example of the investment is the USD 12.5 billion we and our partners are investing in the Scarborough Energy project. We're yet to earn $1 from making this huge investment, but it has already generated more than 3,000 local construction jobs and will provide enough energy for approximately 8 million homes for 30 years.
Maintaining a stable fiscal and policy environment is critical to Australia achieving the goals I've referred to earlier. Importantly, that includes the tax regime in Australia.
Woodside's climate approach balances ambition with discipline and achievability. We have delivered our 2025 net Scope 1, 2 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and are making good progress towards our 2030 target. Woodside also continues to invest strategically in new energy products and lower carbon solutions, including our Beaumont New Ammonia project.
We're very disciplined with our investments in this area carefully monitoring policy developments and staying closely aligned with customer needs. As the Board sets the strategic framework for Woodside to deliver long-term value for our shareholders, we remain focused on succession planning to maintain the high standards of oversight and governance our shareholders rightly expect. We have appointed 7 new directors since 2020 with significant experience in areas that complement the expertise of our longer-serving directors.
Today, we ask shareholders to elect Mr. Mark Cutifani, CBE, as a director. Mark's experience leading large global resource companies through periods of transformation and performance improvements will further strengthen the Board's oversight of strategy, risk and long-term value creation. I commend Mark to you.
Four other directors are standing for reelection today. Larry Archibald, Swee Chen Goh, Arnuad Breuillac and Angela Minas, have proven themselves valued members of our Board with complementary skills and experience. I commend Larry Swee Chen, Arnaud and Angela to you.
Finally, Ian Macfarlane retires from the Board at the conclusion of today's meeting following almost 10 years of invaluable service as a director. The Board and I extend our sincere thanks to Ian and wish him all the best for the future.
With these changes to our Board composition, I want to ensure shareholders that we are mindful of the Corporations Act requirement for at least 2 directors of a public company to ordinarily reside in Australia, which I currently has 3 directors that permanently reside in Australia, me, Liz Westcott and Ben Wyatt.
Can I close by thanking my fellow Board members, Liz, and her leadership team and everyone at Woodside for another astounding year. And most of all, I'd like to thank you, our shareholders. Importantly, approximately 550,000 of whom are small shareholders for continuing to put your trust in Woodside.
I'm very confident this trust will translate into long-term benefits as we build a resilient cash-generative business that is well positioned to enduring -- to deliver enduring value. As I hand over to Liz, please take a moment to watch this video highlighting our achievements over the last year. Thank you.
[Presentation]
Well, hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Number of you in person and of course, people online. It's really a great pleasure to address our shareholders for the first time as Woodside's CEO and Managing Director. And I'm honored to lead this great company with its highly talented people and a proud track record.
My focus as CEO, supported by our strong leadership team is on disciplined delivery to our plan, creating long-term value for Woodside shareholders, maintaining safe and reliable operations and executing major growth projects to budget and schedule. As Richard noted, the conflict in the Middle East has caused significant disruption. And we may get disruption today, but this transcript is available online, and so I'm going to keep going.
We continue to monitor these events with concern for people impacted. It is a dramatic reminder that reliable and affordable energy remains key to global economic growth and the quality of life we enjoy in countries like Australia. As a secure and reliable supplier with a flexible portfolio and trusted relationships, Woodside is well positioned to continue delivering for our customers.
In 2025, we achieved outstanding operational and financial results, and that video you saw showed that. By maximizing performance of our high-quality assets, we delivered record annual production, exceeding full year guidance. This was driven by the exceptional performance at Sangomar and world-class reliability at our operated LNG assets. We combine this with improved efficiency, reducing unit production costs by 4% by 2024.
We advanced major cash-generative projects to budget and schedule and really set the foundations for Woodside's next chapter of long-term growth and value. This included excellent progress on our Scarborough Energy Project, which remains on track for first LNG cargo in the fourth quarter of this year. We achieved first production at Beaumont New Ammonia and made strong progress on our Trion Project, which is targeting first oil in 2028.
And we took the final investment decision to develop the Louisiana LNG project positioning Woodside as a global LNG powerhouse. Since these decisions, we've made great progress on the project at Louisiana, and it's targeting first LNG in 2029. Its value to Woodside has been reinforced through key infrastructure offtake and gas supply agreements that we've signed with high-quality partners.
As nations around the world prioritize energy security and affordability alongside decarbonization, Woodside is confident in demand for LNG as a reliable and flexible energy source. Over the past year, Woodside has signed 6 long-term LNG supply agreements with customers in Asia and Europe, some of which extend into the early 2040s. Our global quality portfolio and established marketing and shipping capabilities position us well to meet growing demand and capture additional value as Scarborough and Louisiana LNG come online.
Woodside also remains a key supplier of reliable and affordable energy to Australian homes and businesses. We supply 21% of West Australia's gas market, including to the state's mining and mineral processing sectors. And on the East Coast, all Woodside's production is delivered locally, representing 19% of total supply.
To capitalize on growing energy demand and to capture long-term value, we continue to actively manage our balance sheet and refine our portfolio. Our agreement to assume operatorship of the fabulous Bass Strait assets combined with our Chevron asset swap in Western Australia will create economies of scale across our Australian portfolio. Our divestment of Greater Angostura assets in Trinidad and Tobago also highlights Woodside's disciplined approach to portfolio management and our continued focus on cost control.
Strong sustainability performance underpins Woodside's ability to deliver long-term value, both for our shareholders and communities in which we operate. In 2025, we made good progress across key sustainability areas. We delivered improved safety performance across our global portfolio with no high consequence injuries recorded. We reduced our gross equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. And that is the actual emissions at source without offsets, they're reduced from the prior year despite higher oil and gas production.
We also continue to demonstrate that what Woodside does well, when Woodside does well, communities do well, and they benefit from where we operate. We spent $9.3 billion globally on goods and services in 2025, including almost $5.4 billion in Australia, supporting local employment and business opportunities. And we contributed a further AUD 2 billion in taxes, royalties and levies to Australian, federal and state governments.
I would like to close by thanking everyone at Woodside for their impressive delivery over the past year. I'm very proud to be leading such a capable and dedicated team. I'd also like to echo Richard's thanks to our shareholders. We appreciate your continued investment and are committed to delivering consistent long-term returns. Woodside's financial position is very strong. Our operations are running reliably. Our growth projects are progressing well, and we are running our business responsibly and sustainably. I have every confidence in our ability to keep delivering strong results in 2026 and beyond. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Liz. We're now moving to the formal business of the meeting. There are 5 items on the agenda today. Item 1 is to receive and consider the company's financial report and sustainability report and the report of the directors and the auditor for the year ended 31 December 2025. Items 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d and 2e relate to the reelections of Mr. Larry Archibald, Ms. Swee Chen Goh, Mr. Arnuad Breuillac, Ms. Angela Minas as directors and the election of Mr. Mark Cutifani as a director.
Item 3 is an advisory note related to the company's remuneration report for 2025. Item 4 is to consider the proposed grant of performance rights to the CEO and Managing Director. And Item 5 is an ordinary resolution proposing an increase in the aggregate amount of remuneration that may be paid in any financial year to the company's nonexecutive directors.
At the time of registration, shareholders attending in person who are eligible to vote would have been given a handset. Proxy holders would also have been given a handset and a summary of their voting instructions. When voting begins, in-room attendees will see today's resolutions on their handset keypad screen. Instructions for how to submit your votes using the handsets are now on the screen. If you require assistance now or during voting, please raise your hand and someone will assist you.
Instructions for submitting votes online are now also on the screen. For shareholders requiring assistance online, please follow the instructions on the online platform to access this assistance. The proxy and direct votes received before the meeting on each item are now displayed on the screen. I hold open proxies in my capacity as Chair of the meeting, and I will vote all available proxies in favor of each resolution. I will let you know when the poll is about to close.
We'll start today with questions for the auditor. Nick Henry from PwC can answer questions during the meeting relating to the conduct of the audit, the company's accounting policies, the preparation and content of the auditor's report or the independence of the auditors. We've received 2 questions for PwC ahead of the meeting relating to decommissioners. The auditors have received the question in full, a copy of which is available at the registration desk and in the meeting documents accessible on the online platform. A summary of both questions is now also on the screen.
Can I ask Nick to respond to the question from the floor, please? Can we put a light on Nick, if there's an opportunity? Thanks, Nick.
Thank you, Chair, and thank you, shareholders, for the questions. Before addressing the specific questions, let me first explain our role as auditor of the company's financial report. Management is responsible for the preparation of the financial report. The financial report is then approved by the directors as being fairly presented. Our role as the auditor is to give an independent opinion.
[Presentation]
Go ahead, Nick.
Thank you, Chair. So our responsibility as auditors is to give an independent opinion on the financial statements taken as a whole. In relation to the specific question on restoration provisions, Note D5 of the financial statements, I think it's Page -- sorry, 219 in the Annual Report outlines, management have outlined the way that restoration estimates are considered.
And as Woodside's auditor, our role is to assess the financial report as a whole and whether it complies with accounting standards, including considerations of provisions under AASB 137 and whether these provisions appropriately disclose the material judgments that go into the measurement of these provisions, particularly in relation to the timing and nature of decommissioning activities, which our estimates with inherent uncertainty and subject to regulatory outcomes, we also consider where the full removal of facility is required or not.
We reviewed the methodology that was applied by management in the recognition of these provisions, including the significant assumptions and data that was utilized in preparing the provisions and the associated disclosures on the financial statements. And we issued an unqualified opinion on our report. Thank you, Chair.
Thanks, Nick. Liz, can you just add a management response as well to those questions?
Yes. Thanks, Nick. And just let me assure you that as the auditors have just outlined and as is evident in that disclosure note on D5, our financial statements are fully compliant with the relevant accounting standards and that they've received that unqualified audit opinion. Cost estimates that we use in our decommissioning estimates are based on specialist expert updates that are provided regularly. We have formal assessment processes. We look at these cost estimates routinely. Our updated estimates are included in our impairment testing, and they're included in the carrying value of our assets.
In the notes, you'll see we've provided detailed information on our restoration provisions, including key assumptions such as discount rates, cost escalation and as well as how sensitive these estimates are to change. We also include additional disclosure on provisions that are not expected to be settled for more than 10 years. We keep our disclosures under regular review, including comparing them with those of our peers, and we'll continue to enhance them where we believe it will improve clarity and understanding for our shareholders.
Thanks, Liz. Are there any other questions for the auditor from online attendees or from the floor? There are no further questions to the auditor at this stage, thanks, Nick. Items 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d, as I said earlier, relate to the reelections of Larry Archibald, Swee Chen Goh, Arnaud Breuillac and Angela Minas as directors. Larry, Swee Chen, Arnaud and Angela have been elected at previous AGMs and retire by rotation at this meeting. Being eligible, they offer themselves for reelection. There's detailed background on each of those directors in the Notice of Meeting.
Item 2a relates to the election of Mark Cutifani as a director. Mark was appointed in March 2026 and being eligible, offers himself for election. Mark, would you please come to the microphone and introduce yourself to shareholders?
Thanks, Richard, and thanks, Liz. Good morning, shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, my fellow colleagues and other participants. First, I'd like to say it is both an honor and a thrill to be asked to join the Woodside Board. I'm Australian, born in Wollongong, trained and shaped in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, lived and worked here for 11 years. I've worked and lived across 4 continents, 5 countries, producing more than 30 commodities, most recently working with TotalEnergies in the energy space.
I'm not going to go through my resume. You can Google me if you're interested. What I would like to say, Woodside Energy is a company that is making and can make a material difference to Western Australia, Australia and the world at large. Most people don't appreciate the reduction in our human footprints that we provide through the energy that we provide to the world. If you don't understand gas and its role in powering the future of Australian industry and in domestic use, while being the key to the energy transition, I'd advise you to let Liz and the team tell you their story. Our job as Board members is to support them make a difference. Again, I thank you for the opportunity. It's great to be here and certainly a great privilege for myself.
Thank you, Mark. And based on the votes received to date, your election looks like it will be strongly supported. As I noted earlier, we will now hold a single question-and-answer session during which you can ask questions on any of the 5 items of business. General questions and comments about the accounts and management of the company can also be asked during this session. Please direct all questions to me as Chair. Please keep your questions brief, ask no more than 2 questions at a time and avoid repeating issues or raising matters that have already been covered and no speeches. This will give as many shareholders as possible the opportunity to be heard. We've received a number of questions from shareholders prior to the meeting. So we'll start with those questions. Operator, please read the questions out.
Mr. Chair, this is Mr. Geoff Reed.
Good morning, Chairman, and thank you for a great year's performance. to you and Liz and welcome to Liz. My name is Geoff Read. I'm a proxy holder for the Australian Shareholders Association. 750 members of our association hold just over 2 million Woodside shares. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask you a question about our production and its sources and destinations. Please can you tell us what percentage of the LNG production is available for sale of spot cargoes? And what percentage of crude or condensate production is available for sale of spot cargoes? Second part is, are these spot cargoes being sought by Australian refineries? And can we deliver them to our Australian refineries at this rather difficult time?
Thanks, Geoff, and thank you for your leadership of the Shareholders' Association. We value the relationship and your shareholders are very important members of our company. I'm going to get Liz to answer both those questions.
Yes. Thank you, Geoff, and a very topical question for many. We have both LNG and liquid fuels, crude and condensate in Australia. And LNG is typically sold under long-term contracts. And we'll see as Woodside that across the '26 to '28 period, 75% of our LNG is contracted. But that does leave 25% available for the spot market. With our crude and our liquids, all of that is in the spot market, and it's generally sold at the -- 2 months ahead of when we expect it to be available for loading.
So when we look at the liquids available, we do note that the 2 remaining refineries in Australia are not well suited to the types of products we have. We have condensate, which is an associated liquid with our gas fields. So in Bass Strait, in Pluto, Wheatstone and North West Shelf, it's a light crude, and this is not well suited to the refineries on the East Coast. Hence, this is now sent into Asia to be returned to us as produced products but requires the refineries overseas.
We also have some traditional crude in our fields, but that is actually very heavy and again, not well suited to the East Coast. So that crude is also processed overseas, but we understand the fuel scarcity challenge. We remain in good contact with our East Coast counterparts to see if there's any way that we can support them further than what we do.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to jump to agenda item #4, the issue of share rights to the CEO. It's proposed that 40% of the long-term incentive rights will be assessed against ROACE, return on average capital employed, over a 3-year period being adjusted for capital projects not yet in production. To achieve minimum vesting of ROACE, ROACE must exceed 7% and to achieve maximum vesting, it must exceed 8.4%.
Mr. Chairman, we believe these targets are too soft, and we note that ROACE was 15% in '21, 24% in '22, 6.4% in '23 and 8.5% in '24. And 6.75% last year. In other words, in 3 out of 5 years, it's already exceeded the minimum -- the maximum target and 2 years did not meet the minimum target.
We note also Mr. Chairman, that a large percentage of your shareholders are voting against this resolution. And I wonder if you could please explain why that is and perhaps let us know who they are? And would you consider adjusting these targets to make their achievement a bit more stretching?
Again, Geoff, thank you. We -- after last year's AGM, we indicated that we were -- or at last year's AGM, we indicated we were going to review our executive incentive scheme because the feedback we've had from directors on our previous scheme. And so this component of the long-term incentive is part of that new scheme, as you know. So it's now a short-term scheme, a short-term incentive with 5 key factors. And a long-term incentive, which is all equity-based, all tested over 3 years and all with a 2-year hold on the shares after any shares vest.
Based on performance over those 3 years, 60% of that is rolling total shareholder return measure against 2 indexes. And 40%, as you say, of the long-term incentive is around a ROACE measure. The reason we put a ROACE measure into the long-term incentives, one, for feedback from shareholders; two, the Board is very cognizant that we want management focused on delivering strong returns from the significant capital that's being invested in Woodside now and I referred earlier to the USD 12.5 billion in Scarborough, which is yet to start off up. And obviously, we've got Trion, Beaumont New Ammonia and Louisiana, all with considerable capital.
So we want the appropriate incentive for management to improve return on capital employed. We think there's a high correlation between growing return on capital employed and shareholder outcomes. Specifically, in answer to your question on the 7%, the reason those earlier years was high was that was prior to the BHP Petroleum merger. And that merger, which took place at high oil prices reduced our ROACE outcomes, if you like, for reasons which you'll understand around goodwill and the asset values that we brought in.
We set the target late last year because our year started on the 1st of January. And at the time we set the target was based on our corporate plan plus a premium on oil prices. Now clearly, what's happened in the Middle East has changed that short-term outlook. But importantly, it's a 3-year target, Geoff, and it has to grow over the 3 years, and it's our average over the 3 years.
So my view is that the Board is unlikely to adjust the target if oil prices are lower. And let's see how this all unfolds over the next 3 years. But there is stretch in that. There's varying views as to how quickly the markets, oil markets and energy markets recover following the Middle East. So we don't intend to change the targets because, again, if we get strong outcomes, we think that will be good for shareholders. But we will keep an eye on this but right now, we think it's the right target.
In terms of shareholders voting against it, it's slightly frustrating that because it's an integral part of our remuneration scheme that we've redesigned that will pass the advisory vote today. So -- and the issue of these shares, performance shares to Liz is only subject to a 50% vote. So it will pass comfortably. We will talk to shareholders following the meeting on any specific issues they've got. But again, I strongly recommend and the Board would strongly recommend that people vote for that because none of those shares will vest to Liz without those performance hurdles being achieved. But I appreciate the question.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Can you share with us what those issues might be right now?
I think -- well, the main issues were potential quantum, but my response to that is Liz gets 0 unless we achieve the benchmark total shareholder returns and ROACE measures and certainly doesn't get maximum until we're in the top quartile. Next question.
Thank Mr. Chair, we have Paul Fanning.
Thank you, Richard, and thank you, Liz. Can address that even thought it was a bit truncated in different parts. I look forward in meeting both of you later. But my questions again probably touch a little bit on the [ Amber ] from the ASA in Item 6, which is the remuneration for the LTI for this, I guess, Page 13 and Page 14 of the Notice of Meeting. What seems to be probably at the crux is, the corporate scoreboard is probably -- it's somewhat opaque. It is referred to in the annual report, which I have actually gone and had a look.
The corporate scoreboard is coming up with from FY '25 of 7.0. Now this is meant to feed back into the structure of Liz's remuneration under the LTI. So I don't think it's been really conveyed very succinctly and very clearly. And therefore, the negative vote on the resolution has probably risen. Probably would be worthwhile knowing where those -- where the negative vote is coming from. I suspect it's coming from institutional shareholders in large blocks, maybe not probably retail shareholders.
So talking about here about the [ FAR ] and then the [ VAR ] in broad context, I understand it, but I really have my sincere doubts as to whether the voting population is really cognizant of this structure here. Sorry about the qualms.
Now can I give my second question? Yes. Okay. Now the second question is on Page 16, vesting conditions. Again, touching a bit more on what Jeff mentioned before. But what I would like to know is your external adviser, who or what assisted you in the construction of the VAR for the performance rights? Did you -- are you able to name the adviser? What dialogue with this discussion did you have? And how did you come to terms with the advice given? And of course, then that then feeds down into the performance rights and then turn that down, which is 60% and 40%.
Thanks, Mr. Fanning and great to see you. I know you travel across the country to be here with us. So -- and I appreciate you being here. And if I fail to answer the question to your satisfaction, please catch up with us afterwards. And Arnaud Breuillac, who is the Chair of the Rem Committee is here as well and be happy to engage with you on these. Let me again -- I won't repeat what I said to Geoff, in terms of the rationale, which was -- we had feedback from shareholders.
The key -- I think the key thing now -- so sorry, let me just talk about the short-term incentive. There are a number of measures in the short-term incentive, which is -- and based on performance, that is paid in both cash and restricted shares. Restricted shares, meaning that they are -- have been earned by the executive, but they will be held for 2 years after they've been awarded. And that's around production. It's around a profit measure. It's around safety and emissions. It's around growth. And there's one other aspect, which I'll think about, climate growth and the base business, how we're running the base business. So safety climate earnings and operating costs, unit operating cost. They're the key measures on the short-term incentive.
And then the corporate scorecard is calculated based on how -- and you'll see that in the annual report, and you -- on how each of those measures go against the targets. And then there's a personal performance factor as well, which applies to it. So that's how that calculates. The long-term incentive, which is all performance shares. So I'll reiterate, no shares get awarded without performance hurdles being met. All performance shares is 60% of rolling total shareholder return. Part of that being measured against the ASX 50 and part of that being measured against a global MSCI index of energy stocks.
And then as I referred to in my answer with Geoff, 40% based on a return on capital over the 3 years. And again, have to meet those targets over 3 years. And we'll -- as I said earlier, we'll reengage with shareholders. I think I was advised yesterday, we've done about 50 meetings with institutional shareholders over the last few months. And certainly, Arnaud and I did a lot last year as well in the lead up to revising the remuneration scheme. So we'll continue to engage with shareholders to ensure we get the support required for these -- for our remuneration schemes.
Just one supplementary. In terms of the corporate scorecard and the opening statement -- opening introduction given by the Chair of the Rem Committee, it's saying that the corporate scorecard only came up at 7. And what I find the skill probably -- with the corporate scorecard only like 7 out of 10, that's probably a bit mediocre. But then when I drill down and find there are some attributes which -- where the -- where it can be improved or it's rather lacking. And also, there was a significant incident -- a safety incident during the year, which you might like to talk about those 2 aspects. I guess a bit more detail for the broad shareholder base about the [indiscernible] of the corporate scorecard widget and also how that's also going to impact on Liz's performance rights also.
So let's ensure we catch up on some of that detail. But what I would say is score 7 is not mediocre. We had a strong year last year, but there are some elements that pulled it back. And that's why when people talk about the maximum potential earnings for Liz and the executive, it's highly unlikely to occur because literally everything has to go right in what is a complex business. But happy offline to go through some of those other factors with you. I think we detailed pretty clearly in the annual report, the performance against each of those measures and then the individual's performance as well. But I appreciate the question.
Just one final thing on that. Would you like some other ASX 200 companies are doing within the skills matrix, would you be prepared to actually enumerate which directors have which particular skills degree of those skills.
Yes. No, we don't go specifically to directors.
I take it back and talk amongst the Board members because there are companies out there that are doing that, Richard.
I'll have a look at it. Thank you. Next question please? Can we have the next question?
Apologies, Mr. Chair. There's an online question being prepared. But in the meantime, I have Mr. [ Martin Dickie ].
Martin Dickie, I'm a shareholder. The ongoing war in Iran and global supply issues have sent LNG prices skyrocketing. Whilst high LNG prices may be good news for our company in the immediate term, I'm worried about what it means over the longer term. We've seen some recent examples that look to be signposts of a declining appetite for LNG demand in Asia over the long term. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent LNG prices skyrocketing, Pakistan rapidly pivoted away from LNG imports and installed unprecedented levels of solar and battery storage to shield against future price volatility, exactly what we're seeing now.
Some countries like India and Bangladesh have recently started gas rationing, whilst the list of canceled LNG projects in Vietnam may soon include the country's largest proposed LNG to power plant. Woodside's LNG is quite frankly, too expensive to compete with renewables and be a cost-effective substitute for coal use in key Asian markets. What makes Woodside so confident in its LNG demand thesis of sustained long-term growth in Asia? Is the company reevaluating these in the light of recent events?
And is that your only question, Mr. Dickie?
No, I have a second question.
Can you ask that, too, please, and we'll respond, without the long speech.
We've heard this morning and loudly a considerable community concern with the impact of Woodside's activities on the natural environment. The whales and the turtles don't vote. So I'd like to know what Woodside is doing to protect the marine environment in the areas in which it operates?
Liz, can you respond on both fronts, please?
Yes, certainly. Thank you very much for your question on LNG demand. Certainly, the last few months have put LNG in the spotlight and when you've got 20% of the world's LNG no longer available to reach customers, we start to see the impacts, and you did outline a number of countries and how they're responding. What it actually reinforces for us is the critical role LNG is playing today, and will continue to play in energy security for many countries. When you've got 20% curtailed, countries are having to take action.
And what we can see is that LNG provides so many activities and support so many parts of our society. It can support the power industry, and that's been a great role. It doesn't compete with renewables. It's additive to renewables. So it provides firming capacity for when renewables aren't available and it can provide baseload. It has multiple roles in the power sector. But it does more than that, and it's a feedstock. It's a critical feedstock for ammonia and fertilizers. It provides industrial heat. And that's used in many processes, steelmaking and others. So it has multiple roles around the world. So we can see that it's going to be a required and sustained part of society.
But when we look at the future for it, we aren't just guided by our beliefs. We look at scenarios for many experts. We look at the International Energy Agency. We look at S&P Global. We look at Wood Mackenzie, Rystad and their predictions of the role of LNG. They see increasing energy demand in Asia, particularly across the board and the role of LNG continuing to be material. And so we're confident that there will be an ongoing demand for LNG.
But then we also talk to customers and our customers tell us the important role it plays, particularly in Asia. And so they're balancing energy security with their ambition in global decarbonization. And they love LNG for its role to do those 2 things for them. And so yes, they're making decisions today around how to keep energy security. And it just shows that complexity that countries have to navigate with energy security, affordability and ambition in decarb.
And protection of the environment?
So change gears, okay, protecting the environment. Environment -- safety, health and environment are one of the key pillars of our sustainability platform. It's something that we take very seriously and protecting the environment is very important to us. It's part of our license to operate. We work through a hierarchy of concepts around environment. We look at how can we avoid impacts to the environment. We then look at how do we minimize impacts to the environment. And then should there be an impact to the environment, we look at how we would remediate and then how we might offset that going forward.
And so we've got programs that we outlined in the annual report talking about our activities in each of those areas. We have a pristine area that we work in up in the Pilbara. It's very important to us. We also have that at Louisiana and in many of the locations around the world. And so our programs are worldwide. They look at the global requirements. They look at how Woodside continue to protect the environment and the things we can do like biodiversity programs that can be additive to the environmental outcomes. So we've got wide range of those.
So Scott Reef's [indiscernible] is it?
If we talk about Scott Reef. So Scott Reef is a really important part of Western Australia and Australia's -- what do I call it? I guess it's a really important reef to us all. We understand how important it is to many people and the living habitats and well migration and the living habitats. Woodside has been supporting the Australian Institute of Marine Science in doing studies of Scott Reef for 3 decades. It's been an area that we wish to learn more about as did others, and we've enabled qualified scientists to do decades of work. They've published more than 70 publications in scientific journals around the world on their learnings from Scott Reef.
And in doing that, not only do they inform everyone around how to manage reefs, but they're informing Woodside around the impact that operations could have and in particular, the things you can do to ensure they don't happen. And so we've been working with scientists around Scott Reef, and we're confident that operations that we might propose with our Browse development, which we're very keen to progress, would be well within the acceptable criteria and that we would continue to look after Scott Reef alongside the scientists going forward.
Thank you. Next question, please.
Chair, we have an online question from shareholder [ Lachlan Wells ] and their question, according to a report from Ember, India is moving from coal to renewables without relying on gas as a transition fuel. Plummeting solar and battery costs are enabling cheap, reliable power despite a rapid increase in energy demand. With energy security now in full focus around the world, India is also far less vulnerable to energy shocks triggered by an exposed international supply chain. Your annual report implies that you expect gas to remain a transition fuel in most developing countries for decades. Are you still confident in this view? Or is your confidence now primarily based on project level contracts?
So can I thank Lachlan Wells for the question. Liz, I think you pretty well answered that in your response to Mr. Dickie. Is there anything you want to add specifically on India and the demand scenarios?
I think it's just to reinforce that each country is differently positioned as they see a 20% reduction in their LNG. And India has chosen their path forward. They're accelerating the renewables, and that's great. The role of gas will continue to be complementary to renewables. It's going to be additive. And so each country is approaching this differently.
Thanks, Liz. Next question, please.
Mr. Chair, we have Senator Whish-Wilson.
Thank you. Welcome, Senator.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Senator for Tasmania. I might be a Tasmanian, but I'm also a long suffering Fremantle Docker supporter. It goes to my first question. When you signed your extension of your sponsorship in 2023, I think it was mentioned no less than 6 times in the media release that Woodside was leading the clean energy transition. So my question goes to that. You outlined a $5 billion investment in clean energy out to 2030. Can you give us an update on whether that's still on track. And if you are proceeding -- continuing to push ahead with Scarborough and Browse, what percentage of your assets in 10, 20 years' time will actually be in clean energy?
So thank you, Senator. Can I stand side-by-side with you on the Fremantle thing now that I no longer chair the AFL. But hopefully, we'll both be together in Tasmania when that team starts in not-too-distant future, which will be amazing. I'll get Liz to respond on both those questions on the clean energy transition, the investments we're making against the $5 billion. And she may not have the percentage of -- she may have in terms of what our portfolio looks like. I don't think we know, frankly, in 10 or 20 years' time. But Liz, can you answer the Senators questions, please?
Yes. Thank you. So you're asking a question about our clean energy ambition. If you think about Woodside, we've got sort of 3 core groups of products we produce. We've got oil, we've got gas and LNG, and then we've got what we call new energy. And in new energy, we include services that we might be provided to support reductions of carbon such as CCS, and then new products that may displace hydrocarbons in the service of energy such as ammonia. We made a commitment in 2030 that we were going to have an ambition of spending $5 billion and reducing CO2 emissions by 2030 in that new energy category.
And we're very excited that we've been able to bring online and have operational a Beaumont New Ammonia plant in Texas. So this is a major investment for us. It's going to go a long way towards those commitments, and it's now online, producing ammonia. It's producing traditional ammonia, but it will be a lower carbon ammonia facility, one of few. It will enable us to deliver lower carbon ammonia to customers, both in Europe and Asia, who are looking forward to that across the decade. And that's a material commitment.
When we look at our new energy portfolio in general, we're guided by 2 very important things. We're guided by what customers are wanting. We need to make sure we're serving customers' needs. And so we have a lot of conversation with our customers, particularly in Asia, around the products they're interested in, the activities or services like CCS that would be helpful to them.
And then we think about what role Woodside can play in delivering that and then make sure that any initiatives or projects we aspire to do are going to meet our capital allocation framework and that they're going to be robust for our shareholders. So that guides our work. And we've got early stage projects in a number of those areas as we see customers' interest develop.
In terms of the overall proportion of clean energy, I think one piece where we're keen to explain is we see gas and LNG as part of the clean energy solution. We talk about this in our sustainability report. Our core product is a solution for many industries and countries in their decarbonization goal. So I don't want to overplay that, but it is a very important part. When we join companies such as the NeoSmelt initiative in Western Australia, their ability to develop steel or products with gas instead of coal is a decarbonization solution. But our new energy portfolio today is a small part of Woodside, but we continue to be engaged with customers over their interests and we'll respond accordingly.
Yes. Thank you. Second question for me. Obviously, Woodside is a big player in Bass Strait off the coast line of where I live. The same cost line, that's lost 95% of its giant kelp forests due to warming East Australian current primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Last year, Australian Student Marine Science gave marine water briefing at Ningaloo Reef following the biggest marine heat wave ever recorded off the Northwest and Western Australia. Temperatures, I understand in places like Rowley Shoals over 36 degrees in the ocean.
Once again, marine heat wave is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. And you're aware of the devastation mass coral bleaching in Ningaloo at the same time it was happening on the Great Barrier Reef. If you proceed with the Browse development, do you take any personal responsibility for the fact that the science tells us that burning more fossil fuels and Scope 3 emissions is a big problem for all energy companies. Do you take any personal responsibility for this climate breakdown that we're seeing, especially in our oceans.
Keeping in mind my last point, people in the room may be pleased to know is that we are now facing potentially Super El Nino. The ocean temperatures in the Pacific are still off the charts in the unrecorded temperatures. And scientists are now telling us we're likely to have a Super El Nino with the hottest year on record for the planet, another one broken. How do you weigh this up as a CEO of a company that is one of Australia's biggest polluters?
Well, there was quite a bit in that. I just beat the very last comment you made, but let me go to the essence of your question, which is around the role that LNG and gas play in climate change. I think studies, and particularly from IPCC and others are demonstrating there is no 1 industry, 1 product or 1 country responsible for climate change. And so we think about the role that we play in enabling countries and others to decarbonize. When we look at the use of coal in the energy system and we compare it to the use of natural gas, we can nearly halve the emissions by having coal replaced by gas.
Coal is still order -- an order of magnitude more common as a fuel source in Asia than gas. The LNG market is about 12% of the energy supplied in Asia in any given year. We see that our product is actually assisting in global decarbonization. But we take the responsibility very seriously around the emissions that we create in producing our product. And our Scope 1 and 2 emissions are things we track carefully. And the initiatives around methane in particular, are something we are very proud of.
So we've had a continuing reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. You saw in the highlights that we did that despite increasing production. We've got a trajectory of reducing emissions. We use offsets when we aren't able to operate or design them out. And then we continue to see that our emission intensity is as low as reasonable and that we are leaders in the methane area. So we see the product as being a really useful part of the global decarbonization story.
Thanks, Liz. Can we have the next question please? Thanks, Senator.
Mr. Chair, this is Mr. David Ritter.
It's nice to meet you in this context Liz, though there is a certain melancholy that goes with no longer seeing Meg among us. Look, my question really divides from the way you just described Woodside's approach to Scott Reef and to marine science in particular. Now WA's own EPA made it very clear that the risk posed by the Browse development, if it goes ahead to Scott Reef was unacceptable. So Woodside was, as I understand it, asked to go away and prepare some more plans, having already been told that it was unacceptable.
And there's probably an important director's obligation point to make at that juncture is, well, did the directors keep an open mind. Did they form an independent judgment at that point? Or were they simply listening to internal sources that kind of said, she'll be right, she'll be right? But well, let's assume that there was some going away and fulfilling of directors' obligations around keeping an open mind and receiving external expertise. So then further submissions go in around management plans for whales, for turtles. Was that giving me a rousing wave because I do appreciate the support, but I'll keep going.
No, I'm not giving you a wave. I'm saying, can you ask the question, please? Well, no speeches. You are the CEO of Greenpeace. Just for the audience to know, and I don't want speeches from you. I want a question. If you haven't got a question, we'll move to the next question.
You'll appreciate there's a forensic context.
David, I want the question, please.
So the question is, given that those submissions went in and given that independent marine experts have now said that the altered management plans were simply cosmetic, will Woodside now do the responsible thing and say, if all that you say is true about the regard for Scott Reef in the oceans. So, well, this is just a bad idea. It's time to give it a miss. We're not going to proceed to drill 57 wells around Scott Reef endangering this pristine marine environment. Question.
Thank you. Thanks, David. Liz -- David, let me just respond on the first bit about the Board. The Board considers information from a variety of sources, clearly, management, but we take our role very seriously. Liz?
Yes. Look, thank you, David. The Browse project has been considering -- it's been considered, if you like, by the West Australian EPA for more than 7 years. It's a project that has had a long dialogue with West Australian EPA. And recently, we've been in great discussion with them about any concerns they've got about the development and opportunities the project has to mitigate or eliminate any of their concerns. We saw at the end of 2025 that the EPA asked for the request for further information from Woodside, and that's been provided very recently. The EPA has not made a recommendation.
Importantly, the development that they are now considering has no drilling at Scott Reef. It is not going to be mined. It is not going to be built on. It will not be touched, and the EPA has all of this information. So the scale of what you're describing is a misrepresentation of the project today, and the EPA is now in that position where they will be contemplating this development. The federal government is also in that same space, considering the environmental approval for Browse. So no decision has been made, and we continue to have a great dialogue with them.
Thanks, Liz. Next question please.
We have an online question from [ Eric Kenney ], who is a shareholder, who has 2 questions. The first is, how is artificial intelligence affecting operations? How much money is spent on artificial intelligence each year? The National Australia Bank spends $1 billion a year?
The second question. Oil rigs serve as a platform for a lot of wildlife like seals and penguins and fish. Can they be kept in place after the useful life to provide a sanctuary for wildlife?
So thanks, Mr. Kenney for the question. Liz, on AI and rigs.
Yes. AI. It's a really exciting part of the Woodside business. And I might just expand a little bit to talk about technology and its deployment in Woodside as well. We use technology in digital across a number of areas of our business. We have a focus on how do we improve safety, how do we improve our operational reliability. And then we also look for efficiencies. And AI is part of the suite of tools. We have drone applications where we're able to use technology to prevent -- or sorry, to no longer require humans to do some of the inspections.
We have digital applications, digital twins, which is starting to use AI, where we're able to replicate start-ups of equipment and assist our operators in doing it safely and reliably. And then AI itself is starting to be used more and more in our operating businesses around assisting operators in doing their work. And so it's used in that role of assisting. It's not going to replace the human decision-making. We are in a really high-risk environment, and we are aware of that. And so these are tools to assist the humans.
More broadly across the business, it's absolutely got the application in corporate functions as it would in the National Australia Bank or any other institution that's looking to scale up the use of AI. And so that also plays a role in what we do.
Oil rigs. So the oil rigs are an important part of our decommissioning activities, and there's an obligation by the federal government around how you leave oil rigs in situ. We fully support your thesis that there's a lot of marine life that loves our oil rigs, and we're continuing to work with the regulator around the opportunity to enable that marine life to continue.
Thanks. Liz. Next question, please.
Mr. Chair. This is Mr. [ Alex Hillman ].
Congratulations on the appointment, Liz. My name is Alex, I'm a former staff member of Woodside, current shareholder, and I am employed by Australian Center for Corporate Responsibility. I've got 2 questions. The first question relates to the appointment of Mr. Cutifani as a Director. So it's been publicly reported that at the time, Mark Cutifani was appointed to the Woodside Board, he had relationships with other Woodside Board members that should have been disclosed by Woodside, including cofounding a mining advisory firm with Woodside Director, Tony O'Neill. He and Tony O'Neill, both being appointed as strategic advisers to Chalice Mining and Chalice Mining is a company founded by your cousin, Tim Goyder.
So the question, what disclosures were made to the full board regarding Mark Cutifani's relationships with other Woodside Board members and your cousin prior to his appointment. Can you please explain how this potential conflict was and will be managed by the Board and confirm which directors recuse themselves from the decision to appoint Mr. Cutifani as a Director.
Is that your only question, Alex?
There's one more? Do you want to do the next one as well?
Yes, thanks.
So our analysis at ACCR shows that the oil and gas sector erodes $0.71 out of each dollar it spends on exploration. Based on our analysis and as we have discussed with you, Woodside's exploration seems to have performed even worse than the rest of the industry. Woodside's exploration spend decreased substantially last year. Could you say more about what the results from spending on exploration over the last decade have been? And if Woodside has recently changed its strategy around exploration, has past performance been used to inform the future exploration strategy.
Yes. Thanks, Alex, and I'll get Liz to talk about exploration a minute, noting that you and Brian and I spoke about that a few weeks ago. But on the question on Mark Cutifani's appointment to the Board, we're thrilled to welcome Mark as a Director. He's got a very impressive track record of business leadership. And as you've seen earlier, the reaction from our shareholders has been overwhelmingly positive. The Woodside Board recognizes that the high standards of corporate governance are essential to our sustainable long-term performance and value creation. And that goes to the appointment and the approach we take in appointing new directors and the management of actual and potential conflicts of interest.
And we have a robust selection appointment process, along with a process for managing any potential and actual conflicts of interest. There is no conflict of interest in this one. Woodside has no current or prior business relationship with Chalice or it's Strategic Adviser, Odin Partnership Limited, is well known that Mr. Cutifani, Mark and Tony O'Neill have a long-standing relationship through the overlapping tenure as senior executives at Anglo American. This was known by the Board during the consideration of Mr. Cutifani's appointment as a Nonexecutive Director and appropriately managed.
The Board understands that Mr. Cutifani and Mr. O'Neill is consideration of mining-related opportunities in connection with the proposed Gonneville project remains at a preliminary stage, and as such, the Board does not consider there to be any concerns. And all directors are committed to keeping the Board informed on their business activities outside of Woodside and any overlapping business interests with other directors, which will allow the Board and Company Secretary to consider and properly manage any conflict of interest.
And Alex, if I can I just say I think Tim Goyder, who is someone I respect stood down as Chair of Chalice in 2021. And I don't have -- and I don't think I've ever had any shares in any of Tim's businesses because I've always been concerned on any perception issues around our relationship. I've been described by someone who's been close to Tim. I think I saw Tim once last year potentially at a function that we were both at, but I'm not sure if I actually saw him last year or not. That's how close we are. So thank you for the question on that. And Liz, exploration.
Yes. Our exploration program is actually a modest program. We're spending about $200 million a year on exploration. And we've got a really disciplined approach to what we're doing. We're focused on exploring our current producing basins with a disciplined approach around looking at new regions that may have scale and longevity for us. So really focus around our existing assets, and it's a modest program.
Thanks, Alex. Next question, please.
Mr. Chair. We have Senator Hodgins-May.
Welcome, senator.
Thank you for having me today. I'm Senator Steph Hodgins-May, and I'm currently chairing an inquiry looking into the taxation of our gas. Ms. Westcott, we invited you to appear at our inquiry in Perth, tomorrow but you refused. So I decided to turn up today to ask you some questions. Woodside told the media this week that a 25% export tax would kill the Browse project. If giving Australians a fair return for their own gas, makes your project unviable, doesn't that show that the model is broken and depends on Australians effectively giving away their resources for free?
And is that the only question, senator? Welcome, by the way.
Well, my supplementary is, will Ms. Westcott front up to the inquiry tomorrow? It's certainly not too late to do so.
Thanks, senator. Liz, on tax?
Yes, certainly. Maybe I'll tackle your second question first. We certainly respect the role that your committee is playing, and we've reengaged very constructively with the inquiry. Mr. Graham Tiver, our Financial Officer, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Tony Cudmore, who's our Executive Vice President of Sustainability Policy and External Affairs will be representing Woodside at the inquiry tomorrow. And they really are best placed looking after tax and policy to be able to assist the committee with what will be detailed questions.
Let me deal with the first bit, if you like. Do you want to do that?
Yes. So the role of the tax system is vitally important, and we respect the right for Australians and agree that they need a fair return for these finite resources. We understand the critical role gas is playing in our industries. And so we also understand the need to have an appropriate tax system. The current tax system is giving Australians a fair return. In 2025, Woodside paid $2 billion in taxes. We have an effective tax rate of 44%. We are giving back to Australians. Our new projects generate a huge amount tax.
The estimated taxes all in from the Scarborough Energy project is AUD 55 billion. These are what the current tax regime will deliver to Australia as a fair return for these massive investments. And so the team tomorrow will be supporting, maintaining the current tax regime.
Senator, the only other thing I'd add to that is, and Liz, thanks for the answer is, as I said earlier, these projects don't just happen. They require significant investment. Scarborough is USD 12.5 billion, and we are yet to receive $1 of income from -- and our shareholders $1 of income for that investment. The way the PRRT is designed is so that there is the capacity for investors to get a return on that invested capital before an elevated or super profits tax applies.
And that's why it is so important to the investment climate in Australia that we don't have super profits taxes that disregard the investment made by businesses. And Liz said, we already pay a significant amount of tax, and we're a top 10 taxpayer, and we're the highest PRRT taxpayer in the country. But all the best with your inquiry.
Can we have the next question, please?
Chair, we have an online question from shareholder, Stephen Mayne. The question, the proxy votes [ fletched ] up for a few seconds show that one of the directors received a 7% against vote, which was below the 18% vote against rem and the 34% vote against the CEO's LTI grant, but still noteworthy. Did any of the proxy advisers recommend against any of the directors? And are you aware why there was a modest protest vote on the director resolutions? Also, at next year's AGM, please disclose the proxies to the ASX earlier, along with the formal addresses to provide more timely market disclosure and allow for a more fully informed AGM debate.
Second question, when was the external audit last tendered? And when will it next be tendered?
So thanks, Stephen, for the questions. In terms of the director elections, all proxy advisers supported the election of all of the directors, the reelection of the 4 and the election of Mark Cutifani. I think the one who probably had the 7% vote against is Larry Archibald, who is the longest-serving director, but that would be the only correlation I can think of. Larry is an amazingly good Director of Woodside, and I'm delighted that he will be reelected today as a director.
On disclosure, Stephen, we'll have a look at that to see if that's appropriate. So I'm looking at the Company Secretary, and we'll go away and have a look at that. So thank you for that. I think this is the -- so I'm looking at Nick now. This is the second year of PwC's -- fourth year of PwC's appointment, Woodside. Prior to PwC's appointment had a long-term audit engagement with EY, I think it was. So I don't think we have any intention of tendering it in the near term. But if that changes, we'll let you know.
The next question, please.
Mr. Chair, I have Mr. [ Matt Roberts ].
Thanks. My question is there were a lot of comments there around gas and the role that it plays in decarbonization in the Southeast Asian market. There was a leaked report from the WA government that they commissioned through Deloitte last year that actually showed that gas is displacing renewable energy in the market. And that it would be cheaper for those countries to actually wait for the transition completely to renewables rather than going through gas and that there is a significant plan for decline in the use of gas in those markets. So given that, how do you respond to that we have these lines about it helping decarbonize, but the evidence suggests otherwise?
Is that the one question, Matt, or have you got a second one?
No, that's the question.
Okay. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for that. I think Liz has tackled this on 2 occasions. One of the things that is happening right now, though, I think, is that we're actually seeing because of what's happening in the Middle East that a number of our near neighbors to the north are either reactivating coal-fired power stations or seeking more coal imports because of energy security and supply. So I think, as Liz's earlier comments about the transition is complex and it's made more complex by geopolitical issues. But I think we've dealt with that in previous questions. I appreciate the question.
Could we have the next question, please.
Our next question is an audio question from [ Hereditary Chief, Na'Moks ].
Hello. I am Hereditary Chief Na'Mok of the Wet'suwet'en Nation in British Columbia, Canada. Today, I'd specifically like to comment on LNG expansion in Canada. There is a very risky bet on LNG expansion in Western Canada, currently sitting on Woodside boats. Woodside has joined the Rockies LNG partners to promote the Ksi Lisims LNG proposal, a floating terminal that connects a larger project, the Prince Rupert Gas Terminal, PRGT. Both Ksi Lisims and PRGT are proposed to be built on territory that indigenous rights holders have not granted consent.
In fact, 5 nation groups have chopped Ksi Lisims and its associated pipeline project in court. And members have initiated a lawsuit to project proponents for the economic damage that this will cause their nations. This economic damage is from both the volatile market for this project and from the environmental, human and ecosystem health impact that these projects will pollute and destroy.
In addition to lack of indigenous consent and support for these projects, which Woodside is invested in, these projects are fully American owned by billionaire investors that were clients of Jeffrey Epstein, and work closely with United States President, Donald Trump.
How can Woodside's Board support continued investment in Ksi Lisims and PRGT LNG projects at a time when gas has proven to be an insecure and volatile fuel and will damage 5 First Nations economy. Will you consider withdrawing from the Rockies LNG and end your involvement in indigenous rates, violation and tax offers funnel to American billionaires?
Thanks for the question. Liz, you can respond on Canada?
Look, thank you very much for your question, and I can hear your passion for the issues for your Canadian LNG project. Woodside has no ownership in the project or the pipeline that you've been talking about. And as such, it's not appropriate for us to even represent those projects and engagements. But I do understand the importance of dealing with First Nations people. We fully respect the need to consult with First Nations people and wherever we operate in the world, we make sure we do that through the nominated and authorized representative institutions.
Thanks, Liz. Go to next question please.
We have 2 online questions from [ Natasha Michelle Lee ], who is a shareholder. The first question, what were the main reasons for the change in carrying values of oil and gas properties from 25,787 M to 23,091? How does the level of recoverable deposits and current resource prices affect this valuation?
The second question, Woodside has 30% female participation on the Board, which is below the world's best practice of 40%. Will the Board commit to achieving at least 40% female participation on the Board?
So thank you for the question. I'll answer the second question first, and then Liz, I'll get you to just talk on the book values -- the carrying values. So the conclusion of the meeting today, Woodside will have 10 directors, 9 nonexecutive and Liz. There will be 4 female and 6 males. So we'll be 60-40 at the end of the meeting today with Ian's retirement.
Liz, on carrying values.
Look, the carrying values have a number of things that go into them. I believe that the change we've got that you're referencing here is really due to changes in depreciation. The properties are going to be measured at cost. They look at the current pricing. So that's not a feature, and we do assess this biannually.
Thanks, Liz. Go to the next question, please.
Mr. Chair, we have Mr. [ Vince Maxwell ].
Good morning, Chair and the rest of the Board. There's a little radio station in Perth, you probably heard of 6PR, and they tend to be running some adverts. I think it's for the Nurses Federation making the claim that nurses can't get a pay rise because gas companies don't pay tax. I just wonder if you could maybe just give us the headline values for the various taxes the company pays in regards to company tax, payroll tax, resource rent tax, et cetera.
And if you -- and can you also tell us if you've considered doing something publicly to try and correct that public misconception. And one suggestion I could make is you have a well-known West Australian on the Board, Ben Wyatt, and he's got some credibility as the former State Treasurer. You could wheel him out on the radio and he could maybe put some -- correct the public misconception on this a little bit.
Thanks very much for the question. It's a good idea, Ben. Again, I think we talked about this earlier. We paid $2 billion in Australian taxes, royalties and levies last year. We're a top 10 taxpayer in the country. Our all-in tax rate over the last 4 years has been around $0.44 in the dollar. And then don't forget, with our after-tax profits, we've typically been paying 80% of that back to shareholders.
And I said earlier, there's a lot of small and large shareholders in Woodside that rely on those dividends as well. But we're -- but your point is well made. I think there is -- there are misleading comments made about the tax we pay. And Ben might become our tax advocate in -- but I appreciate the comment and the opportunity to clarify it. Thank you.
Thank you. Go to the next question, please.
Mr. Chair, this is Ms. [ Victoria Pavi ].
The last vote on Woodside's climate change report resulted in a world's only ever majority vote against a company's climate change report. In 2024, you said there would be a 3-yearly shareholder vote on Woodside's climate strategy. Can you please confirm there will be another shareholder vote on the climate change plan at the 2027 AGM?
Yes. So thanks for the question. We've obviously got enhanced disclosure on annual report this year, which is based on new mandatory disclosures. And for those of you who want a doorstep have a look at our annual report now, but there's very significant disclosures on climate and sustainability in it. Having said that, we did make the commitment that we would do another one in '27. We've had a number of shareholders say to us that they prefer we didn't. But at the moment, our commitment is to do it. If that changes, we'll let you know. But as I say, our commitment was to do a climate -- a CTAP vote in 2027. So thank you for the question.
Next question, please. Now can we go in the room, please?
Mr. Chair, I have Mr. [ Sean Chang ].
Mr. Chang?
As a long-term shareholder, I'd like to express thanks on behalf of all long-term shareholders for your conduct, your staff and the security today. In the 6 waves of protest, there was a WA Greens MLC, Sophie McNeil, who leads this every year. The -- her colleagues were asking you questions. They flew from Victoria and Tasmania to be here. Isn't it true that we've had 20 years of a failed experiment? We've got our young people totally brain wash. They come here, they protest, they jump on stage. They bring a smoke bomb, they push. Meg O'Neill disrupted her lifestyle in Australia, and she's out of Australia now.
Isn't it time that we recognize that there's no such thing as cheap and renewable energy until there's a crisis. The only renewable about renewables is the tax subsidy. $19 billion a year is spent on EVs, batteries. So for -- my first question is about -- for our students, for us. We've had 6 waves of protests today, down from 12 or 15 smoke bombs, threats and so on. Isn't the time to send a message that they have all failed. We need Woodside, we need fuel, we need petrol. What message can you give our young people, Mr. Chairman?
And is that your only question, Mr. Chang.
I've got one more.
Yes. Can you ask that, too, please?
Contrast myself to the senators that flow from Victoria and Tasmania. They could have attended it by...
Just ask your question.
I drove here today. My 1 liter $2 fuel took me 10 kilometers. If I put it in neutral, it will take 10 kilometers of energy to push it back. Is petrol, Mr. Chairman, the dense best form of energy?
Thanks for the question. Those aspects to your question, which I agree with, which is Woodside is an important company. We think it's very important to have an aspiration of net zero by 2050. We do agree with the science that the climate is changing, and we are serious in the commitments we make on that. I think the question about kids education is a bit hard for me right now. And I'm not going to give you any advice on what sort of motor vehicle to buy. But I appreciate you being here and the question.
Thank you. Can we have another question, please?
Mr. Chair, we have Mr. [ Peter Stan ].
Yes. My name is Peter Stan. And I asked this question 2 years ago of you, Richard, and was about nuclear power and its use in the Pilbara. Now you said at that time that we are the only G20 country in the world with a ban on nuclear power, the only G20. And at the same time, we are, as a country, the world's biggest polluter per capita. Put those 2 together. And to me, we have to go for nuclear power. Otherwise, we're never going to reach net zero. And really, since that time, I have followed up, and I noticed that the UAE have got a 5,600 megawatt nuclear reactor there, 4 of them and they supply quarter of the UAE's power. Why not use nuclear?
And Liz mentioned about new energy sources, why not use one of those power stations? You don't have to design something new, and it would compress all the gas that we need. We could then sell that gas instead of burning it and with all the fossil -- what you call it emissions, which are going on the -- what do they call it, those. And then we could unsell that power to power the whole of the Pilbara. 5,600 megawatts was double Perth's capacity today really. And so all the trains, everything could be powered with that 1 station. And I'm not talking theory that exists in the UAE right now, so it's just been completed in 2024. So the question is -- my question is, why not use nuclear power as an energy source. And I know that's banned in Australia. Change it. It's not written in the 10 commandment.
Well, I'll answer it in 2 ways. Firstly, it's not -- clearly, Australia is going to have energy requirements. And I note today that one of the large Microsoft is going to invest significantly in Australia in terms of data centers and AI facilities. So we are going to need energy. It will be up to policymakers to determine the best way, most efficient way of ensuring we've got energy supply going forward. Woodside will play our role, but we don't have any expertise in nuclear, and we're keeping an eye on it. But I think that's one for someone else.
We're going to wrap up in a second. Moderator, any other questions?
We have a summary of a few online questions. With the current pricing environment, can you please provide an outlook or view on the expected impact to Woodside's revenue? And the next, with Woodside's growth and shift to a global footprint, how do you see the trajectory and geographical revenue going forward? Will there be a shift from Asia Pacific to Europe?
Liz, do you want to comment on those 2 questions?
Yes, certainly. At the beginning of the question-and-answer session, we talked about contracts and having contracted supply and spot market supply. And so a large portion of our revenue has been established under contract conditions some of the spot market prices are starting to flow through. And you'll see we have our first quarter results next week, and so you'll be able to get an indication of how that's playing through. But it's a modest impact to Woodside going forward.
In terms of our global footprint, it is a good question. Today, Australia, we're a very proud Australian company and continue to be. 80% of our profit before taxes is from Australia. And as we move forward, though, we do see that shifting to our international business, and we will become a truly global business. with revenue coming from multiple locations around the world.
Thanks, Liza. I think we've really, for the most had a healthy discussion today, and I appreciate those in the room the way they've conducted themselves. So thank you, and thank you for the way you've conducted that.
That covers the formal business of the meeting, and the voting system will close shortly. Please ensure that you've cast your vote on all items. And I'll now formally close the poll. We're just going to tally up the votes.
[Voting]
The provisional results are now on the screen. As you can see, those results show that each resolution has passed. The final results of the voting on all resolutions will be announced after the meeting of the ASX and will also be available on Woodside's website.
On behalf of the Board, can I thank you for your participation today. I know from time to time, it can be trying, but we value, particularly having our retail shareholders with us. I will remind retail shareholders, we also have done a retail online forum just some weeks ago, and we'd love you to participate in that as well. So can I thank you for your participation. Please now join members of the Board and the executive leadership team for some light refreshments. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you very much.
Woodside Energy Group — Shareholder/Analyst Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
Woodside's AGM outlines leadership change, a disciplined growth plan, and capital discipline amid a shifting energy landscape.
📌 Key Message
- Key takeaway Woodside presents a disciplined growth narrative focused on energy security, major project execution, and governance modernization under new CEO Liz Westcott, backed by a strong balance sheet and shareholder value delivery.
🚀 Strategic Highlights
- Projects on track Scarborough Energy Project remains on track for first LNG cargo in Q4 2026; Louisiana LNG targets first LNG in 2029; Beaumont New Ammonia online; Trion first oil 2028.
- Portfolio & markets Bass Strait operatorship aligned with Chevron swap; Greater Angostura divestment; six long-term LNG supply agreements extending into the early 2040s.
- Capital discipline USD 12.5 billion invested in Scarborough; strong balance sheet to fund future growth while delivering returns.
🆕 New Information
- Leadership & governance Liz Westcott named CEO; Mark Cutifani elected as director; continued board refresh with multiple directors standing for reelection; one director retiring.
- New energy & growth reaffirmed USD 5 billion in new energy investment by 2030; Louisiana LNG and related infrastructure progress; continued progress on Beaumont New Ammonia and Trion timing.
- Shareholder engagement Remuneration framework revised in response to feedback; ongoing investor dialogue noted.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- LNG demand & price outlook Questions on sustained LNG demand in Asia; management emphasizes LNG’s role in energy security and decarbonization, with contracted versus spot exposure discussed.
- Browse & environmental concerns Questions on environmental approvals and marine impacts; response highlights EPA dialogue, no drilling at Scott Reef for Browse, and ongoing mitigation efforts.
- Remuneration governance Questions on ROACE targets and the long-term incentive structure; management explains 3-year hurdle, 60% relative TSR, 40% ROACE, and shareholder engagement plans.
⚡ Bottom Line
The AGM reinforces Woodside’s governance upgrades, leadership transition, and a multi-project growth path anchored in LNG while balancing sustainability and policy considerations. Shareholders gain clarity on strategy and capital allocation, but execution risk remains from regulatory approvals, energy-market volatility, and the transition to a broader energy portfolio.
Woodside Energy Group — Special Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning for our briefing on Woodside's sustainability planning and performance. Before we kick off, can I please ask that everybody turn off their mobile phones. Also, there are no drills planned for the hotel this morning. If there is an emergency, our hotel staff will join us and ask that you please follow their instructions.
So welcome to those in the room. I'd also like to welcome those who are joining us on the webcast. This morning, we're meeting on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
Woodside acknowledges their continued connection to these lands and waters, and we pay our respects to elders past and present. Please take the time to read the disclaimers and other important information. Today's presentation should also be read in conjunction with our full year 2025 results and disclosures, which also include an explanation of the assumptions, uncertainties and context relevant to the information presented today.
As a reminder that all dollars in today's presentation are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. This morning, you will hear from our acting Chief Executive Officer, Liz Westcott, who will outline Woodside's sustainability strategy, governance and our responsible supply of energy to meet growing global demand and our performance across climate and other key sustainability areas.
Following the presentation, we will have a question-and-answer session with Liz and several members of Woodside's leadership team who are here today. So now, we'd like to start with some opening remarks from Woodside Board member and Chair of our Sustainability Committee, Ann Pickard.
Hello, and thank you for joining today's briefing on Woodside's sustainability planning and performance. This event continues our close engagement with investors as we chart a course for Woodside to deliver enduring shareholder value through the energy transition. Having chaired this Board's Sustainability Committee for a number of years, I can assure you that a strong focus on sustainability is an integral part of Woodside's strategy.
In this rapidly changing world, Woodside's approach to sustainability provides a strong foundation for success and supports decision-making aimed at responsible and profitable growth. It underpins the strong performance of our business, safe execution of cash-generative growth projects and our ability to create future opportunities for shareholder value. That is why the Sustainability Committee I lead provides continuous strategic oversight and governance of Woodside's sustainability performance.
We seek to ensure Woodside focuses on the right sustainability topics, appropriately manages key risks and impacts and set plans and targets that add value to our business. For our 2025 reporting, this includes specific climate-related disclosures to meet new Australian mandatory requirements.
As the global energy transition continues, public debate and policy settings are evolving to reflect its complexity. In particular, there is growing recognition that making progress on global climate goals must come with and not at the expense of access to secure and affordable energy.
For Woodside, this reinforces our strategy to invest in existing and emerging energy products, which we aim to produce responsibly and profitably to meet growing global demand. We are building this diverse and resilient portfolio alongside a climate strategy that balances ambition with discipline and achievability. Thank you again for joining us, and I'll hand over to Liz.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us, whether you're here in person or online. Today's briefing continues our dialogue with investors on Woodside's performance and our strategy to thrive through the energy transition.
This follows our 2025 full year results released last month and our online shareholder Q&A event held last week. As we've conducted these engagements over recent weeks, we've seen significant events unfold in the Middle East with wide-ranging impacts on global energy markets. Our thoughts are very much with those impacted, and it's yet another reminder that we are operating in a volatile and uncertain environment.
Today, more than ever, shareholders and stakeholders rely on companies like Woodside to do their jobs responsibly and to do what they say they will do. We take these obligations seriously, and I want to share our perspective on these issues today.
I will begin with an overview of Woodside's strategic approach to sustainability, including our focus on robust governance and risk management across this constantly evolving area. As we position Woodside to respond to increasing global demand for energy, our commitment to conducting our business sustainably is at the core of our approach.
For more than 40 years, we have shown that by responsibly producing energy that supports economic growth and improves living standards, Woodside can generate long-term shareholder value and make positive contributions to the communities in which we operate. Our approach to sustainability is driven from within as an expression of our values and an enabler of superior business performance.
Put simply, sustainable business is good business. That's why sustainability is integrated into key aspects of Woodside's business planning and guides decision-making at all levels of the company. While certain priorities may change from time to time, our track record of delivery does not because strong sustainability performance is not only the right thing to do.
It also drives long-term value by helping to derisk our business, secure future opportunities and support a compelling value proposition for investors. As outlined at our recent Capital Markets Day, sustainability underpins Woodside's overall business strategy. We regard our sustainability performance developed over decades of safe and reliable operations and trusted stakeholder relationships as an important priority.
As we expand our portfolio and position Woodside to become a global LNG powerhouse, a focus on sustainability is key to the delivery of long-term shareholder value. The volatile situation in the Middle East has shown that global energy markets can be swiftly and significantly impacted by geopolitical events. At the same time, recent policy and market developments suggest the pace and scale of the global energy transition is becoming less, not more certain.
In this complex environment, it is more important than ever that investors can rely on us to deliver. There are a wide range of areas which form part of Woodside's approach to sustainability. We undertake a materiality assessment process to determine which sustainability-related topics are most relevant to our business performance, activities and stakeholders.
The highest priority topics are determined to be material, and it's pleasing to report that in 2025, we made strong progress across our 4 material topics, achieving a number of key targets. Woodside's ability to consistently deliver on our goals enables us to create and protect value.
Maintaining safe and reliable operations, improving our greenhouse gas emissions performance, coexisting with cultural heritage, securing regulatory approvals for our projects all help us to maintain uninterrupted production and return value to our shareholders over the cycle.
In 2026, our plan will add a fifth material topic of social and economic impact. As Ann mentioned in her video message, Woodside's Board provides close strategic oversight and governance over our sustainability planning and performance. The Sustainability Committee sets the tone by asking the difficult questions and constructively challenging senior management to ensure our focus is on the right areas. This helps us set the right sustainability plans and targets, measure our performance and adjust our priorities as required.
It also drives a strong process of risk identification and management to preserve value and protect the company from downside exposure. Importantly, our sustainability governance framework is fully integrated with our capital allocation framework and key financial assumptions, including carbon price to drive disciplined investment decisions.
The Board also sets remuneration policies that give everyone at the company a stake in strong sustainability performance. Safety and climate targets comprise 30% of our executive incentive scheme and 40% of employee performance-based pay.
Transparently reporting our performance and progress is also a key part of our governance. Woodside's sustainability disclosures continue to evolve in response to emerging regulatory requirements and industry best practice with our 2025 sustainability report complying with Australia's new mandatory climate-related disclosure requirements.
Reliable and affordable energy is fundamental to economic and social progress. Yet the World Health Organization's 2025 Energy Progress report found more than 670 million people still lack basic access to electricity. At the same time, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is rewriting expectations of future energy demand in advanced economies.
So while the pace and scale of the global energy transition remain uncertain, we can be certain that the world will need a lot more energy in the future. The defining feature of the current global energy landscape is the addition of new energy sources to meet growing demand and manage energy security through a diversified energy mix.
At a global level, growing demand for renewables is occurring alongside of, not in place of increased consumption of hydrocarbons. Current events show the importance that nations place on the affordability and reliability in the context of global decarbonization goals. While events in the Middle East have impacted LNG supply flows from the region at this time, the role that LNG can play in meeting complex national energy policy goals is clear.
LNG can play an important part in the long-term energy mix given its ability to underpin renewables and displace higher emissions coal. This is particularly the case in Asia Pacific region, as shown on this slide. Demand for coal has continued to grow strongly in the Asia Pacific region and overshadows demand for both natural gas and renewables. This underpins the strong fundamentals for LNG growth, particularly in Woodside's priority markets.
Global LNG demand has risen by 65% since 2015 and is projected to grow a further 60% by 2035, led by the rebalancing of European energy systems and strong demand growth in emerging Asia. The combination of renewables and gas provides an immediately available solution for highly reliable and flexible power generation that also supports near-term emissions reduction.
Australia's national energy market provides a compelling case study with a clear correlation between increased gas use and greater renewables uptake with lower emissions intensity of power grids. In the words of Australia's Energy Market operator, flexible gas power generation will remain the ultimate backstop in a high renewable power system.
In contrast, curtailing new gas supply with significant unintended consequences by prolonging the need for higher emissions coal as a substitute. Natural gas produced and sold by Woodside into the Eastern and Western Australian markets is consumed domestically, supporting energy security as Australia pursues its decarbonization goals.
Woodside's confidence in sustained LNG demand through the energy transition is reinforced by our recent contracting experience. Over the past 2 years, Woodside has signed long-term sales agreements for supply of more than 75 million tonnes of LNG.
Our customer base continues to diversify, including our first long-term supply agreements with customers in Malaysia and Turkey. Approximately 75% of our LNG volumes for 2026 to 2028 are contracted with most oil-linked and approximately 30% of gas hub exposure. This mixture provides diversification, portfolio resilience and the ability to capture value from market dislocations as well as manage risks as additional supply comes online.
Our recent sales agreements include new supply to Japan, Woodside's largest customer market, in which, as this video outlines, LNG plays a key role in energy transition planning.
[Presentation]
In addition to sustained customer demand for LNG, we expect emerging demand for new energy projects and lower carbon services where Woodside has expertise. Woodside's Beaumont New ammonia project reflects the strategic investment in these areas and contributes to our Scope 3 investment and emissions abatement targets.
While the market for lower carbon ammonia is developing slower than initially expected, demand is projected to come from power generation, marine fuels and hydrogen carrier applications. Our immediate focus for Beaumont New Ammonia is achieving full handover of the project from OCI Global to Woodside.
Production from the facility commenced in December. Production of lower carbon ammonia is now likely to occur after 2026 due to construction issues at the third-party feedstock supply facility. We will continue to monitor this. However, we have seen strong early customer uptake in conventional ammonia, securing offtake agreements at prevailing market prices with leading global customers.
Keeping our people safe is Woodside's top priority and a key company achievement in 2025 was improvement of our overall safety performance. We recorded no high consequence injuries during a busy year of activity in 2025. A significant safety milestone during the year was construction of our Scarborough floating production unit, which marks 3 years of work without a single lost time incident.
We experienced one Tier 1 process safety event involving an unexpected fluid release during a decommissioning activity offshore Western Australia. This was managed through regulatory approved response plans with impacts being short term and localized.
Of course, we continue to strive for further improvement. Our people experienced 38 recordable injuries during 2025, the main types being lacerations, fractures and soft tissue injuries. Beyond physical safety, we strive for a workplace in which discrimination, bullying and harassment are not tolerated. In 2025, we conducted Woodside's first psychosocial hazard assessment to inform our approach to mental health and well-being.
Now turning to our climate performance on Slide 19. As we engage closely with investors, we continue to receive a diverse range of views regarding Woodside's ambitions and actions on climate change and our climate strategy. We consider this feedback carefully as we implement an approach that balances ambition with discipline and achievability, supporting long-term resilience and shareholder value.
Our focus is on delivery, setting targets where we have identified a pathway to meet them. In 2025, we achieved our target for Woodside to reduce net equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions to 15% below the starting base. Importantly, our gross equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, that is actual emissions at source without offsets were reduced in 2025 from the prior year despite higher oil and gas production.
Our gross equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity, which is already below industry benchmarks, also improved year-on-year following start-up of Sangomar in 2024. This strong underlying performance allowed us to reduce our use of carbon credits to offset emissions by 5% from the previous year and holds us in good stead as we progress towards our 2030 target.
An area of strong focus for Woodside is management of our methane emissions. The following video provides an overview of Woodside's industry leadership in this area.
[Presentation]
As a company with 40 years of operations on the culturally and spiritually significant Burrup Peninsula or Murujuga, Woodside has demonstrated that indigenous peoples cultural heritage and industry can successfully coexist.
A highlight of 2025 for Woodside was the inscription of the Murujuga cultural landscape on UNESCO's World Heritage list, an indigenous-led process that Woodside was pleased to support in collaboration with traditional owners and custodians.
We continue to consult meaningfully with indigenous stakeholders in support of our operations and project approvals with traditional custodians helping us to understand, manage and protect cultural values. This not only builds mutual trust and awareness, it also reduces the risk of disruption to Woodside's business activities, including through regulatory intervention.
In support of our growing portfolio in 2026, we will implement Woodside's inaugural global Indigenous people strategy. This strategy provides a set of global principles that can be adapted to local context and requirements. Alongside a continued focus on cultural heritage, the strategy also prioritizes the principles of thriving and resilient communities, economic participation and self-determination.
Turning now to environment and biodiversity on Slide 22. Woodside's approach in this area continues to be based on credible science, strong relationships and responsible operations. This helps us systematically manage risks and environmental impacts, continuously improve our performance and support regulatory approvals for our activities.
In 2025, we had no spills resulting in a moderate or greater environmental impact. However, we did experience 2 releases of hydrocarbons and release of plastic clamps to the marine environment, which were managed in accordance with regulatory requirements. Like our safety performance, we are striving for continuous improvement in this area.
Our biodiversity programs focused upon the recovery of species, habitats and ecological processes. This included the commencement of our Watheroo Biodiversity Project, which aims to restore landscapes in Western Australia's Northern Wheatbelt.
Woodside has added social and economic impact as a material topic for our 2026 sustainability plan, recognizing the many ways our activities can create a positive contribution in the communities where we operate. We have a proven track record of major social and economic contributions, including almost AUD 25 billion in taxes, royalties and levies to federal and state governments over the past 15 years.
On the latest available Australian tax office figures, Woodside is the country's eighth largest taxpayer and largest payer of petroleum resource rent tax. This contribution is matched by a long history of investments in local capability, programs and infrastructure in the Western Australian communities where we live and work.
Earlier this month, I was pleased to attend the opening of new facilities at the Roebourne District High School in the Pilbara to which Woodside has committed AUD 20 million. As we take forward our growth projects, we are applying this same approach aimed at making a lasting positive contribution.
The following video provides an overview of recent contributions related to our Sangomar, Trion and Louisiana LNG projects.
[Presentation]
We’ve covered a lot of information today. Every single Woodsider, where ever we work around the world, is part of our Sustainability performance, and you have seen some of this in the videos today. To return to my opening point, Woodside regards sustainability as a key driver of overall business performance, and fundamental to our strategy to thrive through the energy transition.
We are working hard to deliver our sustainability goals and we'll continue to do so because this underpins our ability to deliver long-term value in a dynamic global environment and uncertain energy transition. Our performance is supported by strong governance and accountability at the Board and senior management levels of Woodside.
By providing energy the world needs and doing so responsibly and sustainably, we are well placed to build a resilient, profitable business that delivers long-term value for our shareholders. We will now move into our panel Q&A session. Whilst we're setting the stage up, we will show a short video on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, which we know is of interest to many, so please enjoy.
[Presentation]
Hi again. I'm Vanessa Martin, the Vice President for Investor Relations at Woodside. Joining Liz today on the panel, we have Tony Cudmore, Executive Vice President for Sustainability, Policy and External Affairs; Sharon Reynolds, our Global Head of Indigenous Affairs and Human Rights; and Peter Metcalfe, who you saw on the video, our Vice President of Climate, Sustainability and Energy Policy.
So we've got 2 roving mics in the room. And so we'll have those if you've got a question, please raise your hand. Could I ask for the benefit of those online that you introduce yourselves at the start of the question.
We ask if you've got lots of questions, if you could keep it just to 2 to start with so that everybody has the chance. So -- but while we just sort of wait for everyone to form their questions, having listened to the material, last week, as Liz mentioned, we had our shareholder Q&A event, and we did have a couple of questions left over from that, that we were unable to get to. So we thought we'd kick off with one of those and then open it up to the room.
So the question we had from one of our shareholders last week was, in light of the evolving U.S. policy and geopolitical landscape, how is Woodside adapting and evolving its approach to climate?
You want me to take that, Vanessa?
Please do.
Thank you very much. Look, I think that's a great question. And perhaps in light of recent events, it's acutely evident that geopolitical and external events have a bearing on the oil and gas industry, the energy industry, public policy, climate policy and so forth.
Look, I'd say a couple of things. The first is Woodside fundamentally is customer-led and capital disciplined. And in that regard, we have to look through the long term. We have to look at what the long-term outlook is for demand for our products, the way policy will evolve over that long term and the way our customers will use our products.
If I think then about the way we operate, and we saw in the video today, the video is actually a representation of Woodside's footprint around the world. So certainly here in Australia, Woodside's place of origin as it were, but also in Mexico, in Senegal, in the United States, in Asia.
And wherever we operate, obviously, we have to take into account the local political context and policy context while seeing through that long term and staying on strategy. So when it comes then to climate policy, our climate policy remains unchanged. So our public targets, our Scope 1 and 2 targets for 2025 and 2030 are unchanged as our Scope 3 targets and our approach to new energy products and services continue.
So we do look through to that long term. We obviously respect the social and political context wherever we operate. But ultimately, this is a business that's looking forward in decades, and that's the perspective we adopt.
Thanks, Tony. Do you have any questions in the room? Rob?
2. Question Answer
Rob Koh here from Morgan Stanley. So good to see you adding the fifth pillar to your sustainability plans with social and economic impact. I guess part of that to me sounds like energy security, which is obviously -- has always been important, but it's kind of more in focus now.
Could I maybe ask you to touch on your contribution to energy security in some of the offshore markets where we're a little less familiar, so like Senegal, Mexico and Louisiana, please?
Yes. So Rob, the role that we see for LNG to underwrite, if you like, or support countries with their energy security and their climate ambitions and affordable energy is very strong.
When we look at the world global energy needs, we can see they're increasing. We had a bit of that in the presentation. You've got global supply, energy demand increasing with population growth, with GDP increasing and then in the established areas of data centers, increasing energy more generally.
And the role of LNG in supporting all of this global energy demand is pivotal. It provides so many different roles to society and energy security is one. Perhaps highlighted in the last couple of weeks around just the importance LNG has on energy security for our neighbors. The Japanese in particular, have been really at pains to say, can Australia support them. We do already through our contracts. So the role of LNG in supporting Asia countries, other countries with energy security is very strong.
Okay. And then my second question, moving from the big global picture to maybe a little bit smaller. In previous presentations, you've had a expenditure aspiration of around $5 billion by 2030. And I think investment to date is more than half of that. Can I maybe just get an update on how you're thinking about the mix of opportunities you're looking at within that aspiration to invest?
Look, the Scope 3 commitment we have is $5 billion and 5 million tonnes per annum by 2030, and that remains unchanged. That's a target that Woodside is working to. As Tony highlighted, we are very capitally mindful. And so we will make sure that any investment we make meets our capital allocation framework, and we're going to be customer-led.
So we need to understand what customers are looking for, the pace at which they're looking for things and the solutions that Woodside can provide to support that. So targets remain, but we need to make sure the projects are value accretive, that they continue to be customers' needs and meet the priorities and timing that customers are looking for.
Thanks, Rob. Do we have any other questions?
Pat Virtue from New South Wales Treasury Corporation. Liz, you conducted your first psychosocial risk assessment in 2025. that's an important topic for our clients. Were there any findings that surprised you about that? And what are the next steps after this?
So I think about the safety evolution over decades that our industry has been on. We started with personnel safety, and that was a real focus in keeping people safe in the physical environment. We then moved as an industry into process safety and really understood the impact of having hydrocarbons under pressure in pipe and the importance of that.
We're now on our next journey of psychosocial health, understanding the importance of not just the physical environment, but the actual environment, the experienced environment for our workforce. So psychosocial survey that we did in 2025, we actually did a number. Some of them were required by regulation. Some of them were out choosing. They all inform us along with our engagement survey of the felt experience of our workforce.
So we were trying to get a baseline. What is the experience today? Where are the areas that Woodside needs to focus. We're still in the process of getting that information back, but that's going to be able to inform programs going forward.
Do we have any other questions? Well, maybe whilst everybody is thinking those up, we have another one from our shareholders last week.
Long ones, I can't remember. So Woodside recently disclosed modeling suggesting that the company could require management action as early as 2031 in order to remain cash flow positive under the IEA's Net Zero by 2050 scenario and management action potentially as soon as 2036 under another 1.5-degree scenario. When will Woodside quantify in its disclosures just how cash flow negative the company could be under the 1.5-degree aligned scenarios in this analysis?
Well, Vanessa, I can probably have a go at answering that. When I think about the disclosures and what I broadly call the scenario analysis section of those disclosures in this year's report, because we're aligned to the mandatory requirements of AASB S2, the climate-related disclosure requirements, it really comes in 2 sections.
The first part is a risk and opportunity section, which looks at the current anticipated climate-related risks and breaks them down into some detail and also a resilience section, which tests the that analysis against further working back from legislated climate-related targets, both a low target -- low climate outcome and a higher one.
What we find is when we look at the climate-related risks and opportunities, which are the ones we currently anticipate, that allows us to quantify and give a range. So in that section report, there is substantial quantification and more detail.
In the resilience section, because we would take actions, but we don't know how or when we would take those actions, the model doesn't allow us to continue to calculate quantification. It does allow us to talk about what signpost we would see, the time we would have and the types of management action available. So I'd encourage you to read the 2 sections of the car and us together and the quantification is in that first bit on risk and opportunities.
Thanks, Peter. any other questions from the room?
Kristen Le Mesurier from First Sentier Investors. On Beaumont, what's driven the slower-than-expected demand for low-carbon ammonia? And then secondly, what are the construction issues that you mentioned?
Yes. So the Beaumont New ammonia clean is up and running. So first production was at the end of '25, and we're in the process of getting to full performance testing and then Woodside will take operatorship of the facility.
So we are today producing ammonia and selling that in the traditional ammonia market. The lower carbon market continues to evolve. And we do see, over time, strong prospects for this market. But it's certainly fair to say customers are slower in wanting to have these products, whether that be through government policy in their region, Europe, whether it be the subsidy schemes in Asia that we're going to support the introduction of lower carbon ammonia.
But the ability to introduce lower carbon ammonia in the traditional market is strong as well as these emerging new areas. So we do see the prospects are strong. They're just slower to build up. In terms of the question today on the timing for lower carbon, we have third-party suppliers that are doing the autothermal reforming to create the hydrogen that allows you to be lower carbon.
That also requires CCS. And it's those facilities in general with permits that are running behind schedule from the suppliers. So we remain engaged with them to better understand their construction outlook and schedule, but we need those facilities for lower carbon ammonia.
Yes, Rob.
Yes, me again. I promise I am trying to let everybody have a chance. Maybe giving an opportunity to Ms. Reynolds, who hasn't had a chance to talk. Could we maybe just ask you for any sharing you can have on the intersection of indigenous people and resilience. Often First Nations people actually have excellent knowledge that can help on those kind of things.
Sure. So I think for Woodside's approach, we acknowledge that indigenous peoples need to be central, particularly to decisions and activities and that are occurring on either their land or sea country.
So making sure that we engage early and that we allow the full kind of gamut of information and information exchange so that we're able to then meaningfully incorporate their feedback and that both into our decision-making and the activities that are occurring on country. So Woodside's policy firmly embeds indigenous voice, and that's something that all employees of the company are then bound by.
Any other questions from the room?
Anita Stanley from Macquarie. I just wanted to ask with the World Heritage listing of Murujuga, does that put additional requirements on the operations of the Burrup Peninsula assets?
I'm happy to take that if you like. I think Woodside's position around the world heritage is that it actually provides more certainty over what we had long understood as being a very culturally rich and significant landscape. And so the level of attention and reporting is something that we've been applying in practice over a long period.
There will be additional reporting requirements placed on the states, on government, and Woodside will seek to contribute and support that where necessary. But in terms of our own application and approach, it actually doesn't change the way that we've been operating in that landscape over a long period of time now.
Do we have any other questions?
Eleanor Earl From HESTA. I was just wondering if you could give us a sense of how your climate targets might be evolving over the next decade or so. So you've got 2025 that you've achieved and then 2030, but there's not so much information on what's coming after that.
I mean maybe I'll have -- maybe you go, Peter, perhaps you could talk to this, too. So look, that's a great question. And one of the things that we talked about in our annual report was the fact that we obviously are looking at what the future landscape is.
So Australia, for example, and most Paris signatory nations now have announced their 2035 national determined contribution. So we're obviously taking that into account. We still have quite a ways to go before we get to 2030 on the current suite of targets, but it's obviously something that we're under -- that is under quite a lot of consideration as both nations move forward with their own targets as the energy landscape continues to evolve as we outlined in the presentation today. But Peter, any further thoughts?
Well, perhaps just one other thing on the development of those targets is, of course, the delivery against them as well. And so we -- this year, we've -- well, last year, but this year's reporting, we met the 2025 target. We're continuing towards 2030.
And as Tony said, considering what else could impact it. But in that delivery, one of the things we've had a lot of conversations with investors about over recent times is the balance between the underlying gross emissions performance and reductions at our facilities relative to the amount of achievement of the target done by offsets.
And we've seen this year that actually we used fewer offsets to meet a tougher target despite higher oil and gas production, which gives us some confidence that we're continuing to drive that what we call design out and operate out in the right direction.
And the one particular example I'd draw on that is methane emissions, which are really getting a focus. And so we're now working through, as we said in the video about OGMP 2.0 gold standard pathway to make sure we're really understanding and measuring and verifying our methane emissions are what we say they are.
Liz, you spoke about the strong demand for LNG in Asian markets in the years ahead. given the geopolitical landscape, potentially elevating the risk profile, are you able to talk through the scenario analysis or stress testing that's done when you're considering growth market or growth plans in those markets in the years ahead and how that might be influencing those decisions?
We do a lot of thinking about the outlook of energy demand, the role LNG is going to play, the role oil is playing and how we see these markets evolving. So we have views, but they are going to be subject to the world as it plays out.
And so we test our assumptions. And our Capital Markets Day presentation from November did, in there, we can find the page later, a really nice test of showing what a low price outcome would be in terms of the resilience of Woodside and its portfolio.
So we do test against a range of outcomes on price. We test a range of outcomes on demand for our products and make sure we are resilient. Our cash breakeven cost is $34 a BOE. We are a very resilient, low-cost, well-placed business. We have geographic diversification, world-class assets that have been running with high reliability. All these things assist you in an uncertain market going forward.
We also have a range of contracting that we apply to build financial resilience, whether that's in the near term or in the longer term. You will have seen we've got contracts over the last 2 years now that take us out into the 2040s. So we have customer commitments for our product, which builds resilience. So there's a lot of different elements, but we do test the scenarios, as you say.
Another question for me. Just on Scope 1 and 2. So would you consider setting a measurable interim Scope 1 and 2 emissions target between the 2030 target and the 2050 Net Zero target, given Australia's NDCs, we now have a 2035 target.
Well, I think -- I mean, really consistent with the response to the question on what's next. I think we're looking at that entire landscape at the moment, as you'd expect us to, to understand where we should go, recognizing that we're still on the way to 2030 and have just met 2025.
So we've got -- we still have a few minutes. We had another question that was from our shareholder Q&A last week, which said Woodside's strategy appears to be informed by climate change assumptions, which continue to be debated. What possible implications would the company face if those assumptions were ultimately shown to be overstated?
I can have a go at that. I think -- thanks, Vanessa. And we talked a little bit about how we test our assumptions for scenario planning on both upside and downside already. What I would say about that is climate scenarios, they always have been quite broad. There's always been a broad range of pathways.
Woodside has put quite a bit of emphasis in explaining, but we've always tried not to pick one and chop in one scenario and run the business on that.
We've tried to embrace the fact that there is a range of uncertainty and test our planning against it, making sure that we're firstly customer-led and also capital disciplined. And we test those investment decisions when we made them against a range of climate-related transition factors like Scope 1 and 2 performance or like risks opportunities. So that's quite well embedded in the way we think about things and is really designed to make us resilient to an uncertain future.
Please, Rob.
I hope I am giving everyone an opportunity. Just again, going on to social and economic impact and Woodside does have a very big community footprint. Can you talk to how the company is thinking about its responsibilities in relation to climate disinformation and misinformation?
Lots of us could talk today. I'll let Tony have a start.
Well, Rob, I suppose I'd start with the core value of integrity. So we, as a company, certainly intend always to speak factually, truthfully and verifiably. So that, I think, is a core. And we've been -- that has been a driving value of the company, I'd say, for as long as the company has been around.
Underpin further, if I can just talk a little bit to the mandatory climate disclosures, which while we've always verified are now subject to further assurance requirements and that is outlined in this year's annual -- the 2025 annual report.
We also have an interest, a very strong interest in ensuring that we are responding factually where there are misrepresentations either about our position or where there's a contribution we can make to clarify something in public debate.
So certainly, we spend a lot of time ensuring that we are properly represented ourselves and that we're not misrepresented by any third party, and that's important. As is also the case that we need to ensure that we are constantly monitoring the external landscape for conversations where we think we can make a contribution. I hope that is helpful.
I might just add a little bit. As Australia's leading energy company, we know we have actual responsibility to not just our shareholders and stakeholders, but to the industry at large to be a voice and to explain as best we can -- how we see the world, how we see the role of gas in supporting the ambition of Australia and governments on decarbonization and energy security.
And so we do take that opportunity and we take that responsibility seriously. Sessions like this is part of it. We participate in industry bodies. So we are looking to put our voice out there to be respectful.
We welcome debate. We welcome those who want to understand more, who are genuinely interested in understanding the various perspectives of how this future might play out. So there's a range of areas where we look to engage.
I think we've got time for about one more question. Any other questions from the floor? No. No more questions. Okay. Look, I want to say thank you very much for joining us today.
We do hope that you found the presentations useful and informative, and we look forward to engaging with you all further. Please reach out if you do have any questions. We look forward to seeing you all at the AGM. And so thank you very much.
Woodside Energy Group — Special Call - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
🎯 Key Message
- Summary Woodside frames sustainability as a core driver of durable shareholder value, guiding governance, risk management and capital allocation. The plan emphasizes a diversified energy mix led by LNG, with long-term contracts, social and environmental accountability, and incentives aligned to safety and climate performance.
🧭 Strategic Highlights
- LNG Growth Global LNG demand has risen about 65% since 2015 and is expected to grow ~60% to 2035. Woodside has contracted about 75 million tonnes for 2026–2028 and is expanding its diversified customer base (Japan, Malaysia, Turkey) to strengthen resilience.
- Lower-carbon Energy Beaumont New Ammonia progressed to production handover; slower-than-expected demand for lower-carbon ammonia due to feedstock and CCS permitting timelines, while traditional ammonia markets remain robust.
- Governance & Social Murujuga UNESCO listing reinforces cultural-heritage governance; a new global Indigenous People strategy formalizes engagement and local benefits; sustainability targets are embedded in executive incentives and capital decisions.
🆕 New Information
- Material Topic Expansion 2026 plan adds a fifth material topic: social and economic impact, signaling broader community value creation.
- Heritage & Indigenous Focus UNESCO World Heritage listing for Murujuga elevates reporting and stakeholder engagement standards; global Indigenous People strategy formalized.
- Beaumont Ammonia Production underway; lower-carbon ammonia market development remains slower due to third-party feedstock and permitting timelines.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Energy Security Discussed LNG’s role in energy security across offshore markets (Senegal, Mexico, Louisiana) and the need for diversified, reliable supply to support customers and policy goals.
- Investment Mix Reiterated the Scope 3 target of $5 billion and 5 million tonnes per annum by 2030; investments must be value-accretive and customer-led within a disciplined capital-allocation framework.
- Scenario Disclosure Outlined climate-related risk/opportunity sections in disclosures, with quantification in risk analysis and qualitative resilience signs for potential actions; cash-flow implications discussed in context of 1.5°C/Net Zero pathways.
⚡ Bottom Line
Woodside’s sustainability briefing reinforces a disciplined, growth-oriented approach that centers LNG, governance and stakeholder value. With new social focus, ongoing lower-carbon initiatives, and robust scenario planning, the company aims to sustain resilient, long-term value for shareholders amid a dynamic energy transition.
Woodside Energy Group — 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Woodside Energy Group Limited Full Year 2025 results. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to hand the conference over to Liz Westcott, Acting Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome to Woodside's 2025 Full Year Results Presentation. We are presenting from Sydney, and I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Today, I'm joined on the call by our Chief Financial Officer, Graham Tiver. Together, we will provide an overview of our full year 2025 performance before opening up to Q&A.
Please take time to read the disclaimers, assumptions and other important information. And I'd like to remind you that all dollar figures in today's presentation are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. I am very pleased to present an outstanding set of full year results today, which highlight the disciplined execution of our strategy throughout 2025. We delivered on our commitments leveraging our track record of operational excellence, world-class project execution and financial discipline to reward our shareholders today while positioning Woodside for future value and growth.
In 2025, we achieved record annual production of 198.8 million barrels of oil equivalent, exceeding our full year guidance range. This was driven by the exceptional performance at Sangoma and world-class reliability across our operating portfolio. We progressed major cash-generative growth projects to budget and schedule including excellent progress on our Scarborough Energy project, which was 94% complete at year-end and remains on track for first LNG cargo in the fourth quarter of 2026. We recorded strong underlying net profit after tax of $2.6 billion, where record production offset lower realized prices when compared to full year 2024 underlying net profit after tax.
Based on this, I'm pleased to report our Board has determined a final dividend of USD 0.59 per share. This brings our total fully franked full year dividend to USD 0.0112 per share. This represents a payout ratio of 80% of underlying NPAT, which is once again at the top end of our range.
Additionally, in a testament to the strength of our underlying business during a period of increased capital expenditure and softer prices, we generated free cash flow of $1.9 billion. We achieved this while continuing to invest in the next phase of value accretive growth. We demonstrated strong sustainability performance achieving our 2025 target of a 15% reduction in net equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions below our starting base.
Turning to Slide 6. As outlined at our Capital Markets Day in November, we are delivering our strategy to thrive through the energy transition. Our strategy and our approach remains unchanged. Our priorities are clear and we remain firmly focused on disciplined execution to deliver long-term value. We are doing this by maximizing performance from our base business, delivering cash-generative projects and creating future opportunities for value. In 2025, we delivered across each of these areas. We combined record production with increased efficiency, reducing our unit production costs to $7.80 per barrel of oil equivalent. We achieved first production at Beaumont new ammonia and achieved significant milestones in the delivery of our Scarborough and Trion projects. We took a final investment decision to develop the 3 train, 16.5 million tonne per annum Louisiana LNG project. This game-changing investment positions Woodside as a global LNG powerhouse with greater capacity to meet growing energy demand.
We also welcomed high-quality strategic partners to Louisiana LNG with Woodside's expected share of total capital expenditure now less than 60%. One of these partners, Stonepeak, is funding 75% of 2025 and 2026 project capital expenditure. We continue to actively refine our portfolio, including divestment of our greater and Gastura assets, receiving $259 million in cash. And all of this was achieved while maintaining a strong balance sheet and liquidity position with gearing within our target range.
Keeping our people safe remains our top priority. During a year of increased activity, we delivered strong safety performance with no high consequence injuries recorded. We marked significant safety milestones across our global portfolio with no recordable injuries at our Sangoma project in its first 18 months of operations and construction of our Scarborough floating production unit, marking 3 years of work without a single lost time incident. These achievements set the required standard for Woodside as we embed a focus on safety, drive safety field leadership and a culture of continuous learning across our global business.
To Slide 8. In 2025, we once again showcased Woodside's world-class operational capabilities by delivering reliable energy to customers while driving continuous improvement through cost discipline and efficiency. We have increased production from our growing global portfolio and maintaining operated LNG reliability of approximately 98% over the past 5 years. which compares exceptionally well against our global peers. This year, we've delivered a 4% reduction in unit production costs through disciplined cost management across the business while continuing to maximize value from our assets through brownfield developments, portfolio optimization and leveraging our marketing expertise to capture additional value.
In 2026, we will execute major turnarounds to maximize longevity at existing assets and support ramp-up of new production, including at Pluto LNG in preparation for Scarborough start up. We will also undertake dry dock maintenance for some of our Australian oil assets.
Let's now turn to Sangoma on Slide 9. During 2025, operational performance continued to be exceptional, with nameplate production of 100,000 barrels per day for most of the year, at almost 99% reliability. This has contributed $2.6 billion to Woodside's EBITDA since start-up, demonstrating Sangoma's value to our business. Based on strong early performance, we will be assessing options for a potential Phase II, which would leverage the existing FPSO and the subsea infrastructure to unlock additional value. In December 2025, our Beaumont new ammonia project commenced production of first ammonia. We expect full handover of the project by OCI in the first half of 2026. The production of lower carbon ammonia, which will be made possible by the supply of carbon abated hydrogen and ExxonMobil's CCS facility becoming operational, is currently targeted for the second half of 2026.
Pleasingly, we have seen strong early customer uptake from Beaumont, securing offtake agreements with leading global customers to supply conventional ammonia from the facility. These contracts reflect prevailing market prices, and we are now advancing additional agreements to align with expected future output, including for lower carbon ammonia.
In 2025, we continue to make excellent progress at our Scarborough Energy project, which was 94% complete at year-end and on track for first LNG cargo in the fourth quarter of this year. Major milestones included the assembly and subsequent to the period, safe arrival of the floating production unit at the Scarborough field. The drilling campaign for all 8 development wells were successfully completed in line with pre-drill expectations. During the period, we completed the tie-in to the Pluto domestic gas export line as construction activities at Pluto Train 2 continued.
We also commissioned the integrated remote operation center at our Perth headquarters enabling Pluto and Scarborough to be operated remotely from more than 1,500 kilometers away.
Moving to Trion on Slide 12. We are targeting first oil in 2028 with the project 50% complete at year-end. During the year, we advanced construction of both the floating production unit and floating storage and offloading unit with major field activity set to start in 2026. The image shown on the slide taken this month is the lifting of the first of 3 modules onto the whole of the FPU. Preparations for the drilling and completion campaign also progressed with the deepwater drillship expected to commence drilling in early 2026. Following FID in April, we have maintained strong momentum on our Louisiana LNG project. As outlined on Slide 13, the project was 22% complete at year-end and is targeting first LNG in 2029. Key ongoing activities in 2025 included the construction of LNG tanks, soil excavation, pile installation for the main marine birth and the establishment of material offloading facilities. We have now secured foundational transportation capacity, a key milestone in providing access to diverse and abundant supply sources. In support of feed gas supply, we also entered into a long-term agreement with BP for the supply of up to 640 million cubic feet of natural gas to the project starting in 2029.
We will continue to layer in agreements like this, ensuring access to multiple supply sources. The project's value proposition was reinforced during the year as we brought in high-quality partners. This included the 40% sell-down of Louisiana LNG infrastructure to Stonepeak and sale to Williams of a 10% interest in Louisiana LNG LLC an 80% interest and operatorship of Driftwood pipeline LLC. The project is expected to be the primary supply source for long-term sale and purchase agreements that Woodside signed during the year with European customers targeting delivery from 2029.
We will continue to progress further sell-downs and offtake agreements in 2026 in response to ongoing interest received from potential high-quality partners and customers. Woodside View's strong sustainability performance is an essential component of our overall business success and ability to make a positive contribution where we live and work. Our approach enables us to focus on the right areas, manage key risks and impacts, drive responsible decision-making and set plans and targets that add value to our business and meet the expectations of our stakeholders. In 2025, we made positive progress across key sustainability areas.
A particular highlight of 2025 was the well heritage listing of the Merge cultural landscape, which Woodside was pleased to support in collaboration with traditional custodians. We continued making significant contributions to local economies and communities, including $9.3 billion spent globally on goods and services. We also achieved our 2025 net equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target through a combination of underlying emissions performance at our facilities and the use of carbon credits.
Our gross equity Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions were fewer than the previous year despite higher oil and gas production. This strong underlying performance allowed us to reduce our use of carbon credits to offset emissions and holds us in good stead as we progress towards our 2030 target. I look forward to providing investors with a more detailed overview of Woodside's sustainability planning and performance at our investor briefing scheduled for next month in Sydney.
Let's now turn to the global market landscape. Oil is a core product for Woodside underpinned by a robust demand outlook. The difficulty of decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy transport and petrochemicals means that oil demand is forecast to remain resilient as the world's energy mix evolves. Customer demand for Sangomar oil has been strong over its first 18 months of operations. and we are very confident in continued demand for oil, including for our Trion project, which is targeting first oil in 2028.
Moving to Slide 16. As countries around the world prioritize energy security and affordability while also pursuing decarbonization, we are confident in ongoing demand for LNG as a reliable and flexible energy source. This underpins our investments in long-life LNG projects like Scarborough and Louisiana LNG, which we expect to drive a step change in future sales, volumes and cash flow. While periods of demand/supply imbalance may occur in the near term, we believe these are unlikely to persist.
Woodside's experience reinforces this long-term demand outlook as we continue to layer new contracts to support our growing supply portfolio. Over the last year, we have contracted 4.7 million tonnes of new LNG supply to Tier 1 end customers with significant gas and LNG experience. This contracting activity speaks to our credentials as a proven operator and the growing importance placed on reliable access to energy by end users. Approximately 75% of our LNG volumes for 2026 to 2028 are contracted with most oil-linked and some gas hub link exposure.
This mixture provides diversification, portfolio resilience and the ability to capture value from market dislocations as well as managed risks as additional supply comes online. Some of our new contracts will see Woodside's LNG supplied into Asia and Europe through to the 2040s, further demonstrating ongoing long-term demand. Our achievements in 2025 have further supported Woodside's resilience and ability to deliver enduring value. Our financial discipline and performance underpins Woodside's strength in the near term allowing us to fund our operations and growth projects while delivering solid shareholder returns even in tighter market conditions.
Our operational excellence and balanced portfolio are central to our resilience through the cycle. High reliability and a contracted portfolio helped produce volatility while preserving upside exposure to favorable market conditions. Our long-term resilience is reinforced by a diverse portfolio of high-quality assets that supports consistent production and creates optionality for future growth and value.
I'll now hand over to Graham to provide an overview of our financial strategy and performance.
Thanks, Liz, and hello, everyone. I am pleased to present a strong set of financial results. In 2025, we maintained a focus on cost control, and maximizing returns from our producing assets and driving down unit cost production. In addition, in exploration and new energy, we delivered over $200 million in cost reductions.
For 2026, we will continue to focus on costs, including delivering maintenance campaigns to schedule and budget. This is particularly relevant for our Pluto major turnaround scheduled for the second quarter of 2026, where in addition to maintenance, we will complete important tie-ins for Scarborough. We maintained discipline in our investment decisions adhering to our clear capital allocation framework. Our divestment of the Greater Angostura assets in Trinidad and Tobago highlight this disciplined investment approach attracting strategic partners to our major growth projects brings complementary skills and derisks our investment. This is demonstrated through our partnerships with Stonepeak and Williams on Louisiana LNG. Following the completion of these sell-downs, Woodside's expected total capital expenditure is now $9.9 billion, which is less than 60% of the total project cost announced at FID.
Williams also brings complementary capabilities in U.S. natural gas infrastructure and an existing gas sourcing platform to benefit the project. We also maintained a strong balance sheet supporting our investment-grade credit rating while progressing developments and distributing robust returns to shareholders. We actively manage liquidity and where appropriate, we expect to hedge a modest portion of our oil volumes to provide cash flow certainty and manage price volatility. Our full year 2025 brand hedges were in a positive position and we have progressively hedged 18 million barrels for 2026 at approximately $70.
Moving to our capital management framework which remains unchanged. This framework underpins our disciplined approach with clear targets to ensure the strength of our underlying business and provide certainty for our shareholders. We are disciplined in how we position the balance sheet to achieve our goals and remain committed to an investment-grade credit rating. Our target gearing range is 10% to 20% through the cycle. And as I've stated previously, although we may, at times, temporarily sit outside this range during capital intensive periods, we manage it very closely. This approach provides us with flexibility to fund value-accretive growth while delivering solid shareholder returns.
Our dividend policy is to pay a minimum of 50% of our underlying net profit after tax, and we target a range of 50% to 80%.
We know how important returns are to our shareholders. And over the last decade, we have consistently paid at the top end of this range. continued to deliver outstanding returns from our base business. Ongoing exceptional production cost control, the divestment of later life assets in Trinidad and Tobago and gains on hedging, predominantly driven by favorable Brent positions contributed to an EBITDA margin of over 70% and an underlying NPAT of $2.6 billion. Furthermore, the strength of our underlying business, coupled with the cash received from StoneBak and Williams contributed to $1.9 billion of free cash flow. Our gearing of 18.2% has remained within the target range during a period of increased capital expenditure, and we closed the year with a strong liquidity position of $9.3 billion.
We maintained credit ratings of BBB+ or equivalent and continue to have access to debt markets, including the U.S. SEC registered bond market. On average, cash breakeven of less than $34 per barrel makes us resilient to less favorable price scenarios. And we are very well positioned to progress our growth projects and create future value-generating opportunities while continuing to deliver solid shareholder distributions. As highlighted on Slide 23, these achievements translated into a fully franked final dividend of $1.1 billion, I should say, bringing our total full year dividend to $2.1 billion. Our ongoing business performance means consistent returns for our shareholders, having returned approximately $11 billion in dividends since 2022, while reinvesting in the business and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We have consistently paid at the upper end of our target range for over a decade, demonstrating our commitment to shareholder returns.
Thank you, and I'll now hand back to Liz.
Thanks, Graham. Turning to the final slide. This outlines the priorities for myself and the Woodside executive leadership team. First, we will continue maximizing performance from the base business by operating safely, reliably and efficiently. We will maintain disciplined cost control across our business, including our 2026 maintenance program, which involves a major turnaround at Pluto. We will also continue to optimize our marketing portfolio and layer in Louisiana LNG offtake. Second, we will deliver cash-generative growth, including ramp-up at Beaumont, deliver first LNG from Scarborough and continue progressing Louisiana LNG and Trion to schedule and budget. These are major generators of long-term value for Woodside. Third, we will continue creating future value through disciplined capital management. We will maintain strong liquidity, apply strict capital allocation discipline and actively manage the portfolio to protect long-term value. And underpinning all of this is our continued focus on sustainability and innovation.
Our achievements in 2025 demonstrate the underlying strength of our business and execution of our strategic priorities providing the foundation for long-term shareholder value. Thank you.
I'll now open the call to your questions. Please limit your questions to 2 each so everybody has an opportunity.
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Nik Burns with Australia.
2. Question Answer
Yes. Lisa First question just on Louisiana LNG. You just offered an update on the holdco sell-down progress 10 months, you sanction the project at a recent Capital Markets Day, Meg said that the initial 10% tranche sale had standard message to other entered parties that needed to move quickly here I wanted to participate. Just wondering how comfortable you are with the sole process is that the Stonepeak carry largely runs out at the end of this year. So how confident are you they will be able to complete your sell downs in the first half of this year?
Yes. Thank you. Look, we are very happy with how the process is going on the sell-down for Louisiana LNG. In a short amount of time, as you noted, we've brought in Stonepeak on the infrastructure side, and we've got Williams at the holdco level, and we continue to target up to another 20% of Holdco sell-down. Importantly, these transactions with Stonepeak and Williams have reduced the capital commitment for Woodside to $9.9 billion or 57% of the total CapEx and it's really solved the infrastructure and pipeline capital spend, which is positioning us well for other partners.
As you noted, Stonepeak's contribution is 75% of the capital in 2025 and 2026 and this structure has really allowed us to reduce our capital requirement ahead of full year of revenue from Scarborough in '27. And so there really has been no change in our process or momentum, but we are taking a disciplined approach. We are very committed to getting value over speed with our continued sell-downs. We do have strong interest from counterparties. We are looking for strategic partners that complement the skills and experiences of Woodside and that value long-term relationships, and I'm very pleased with the interest that we continue to have in this.
I think -- Nik, it's Graham as well. It's probably worthwhile adding as well that where the balance sheet is gearing well within the range, $9.3 billion in liquidity, we have time to ensure, as Liz said, that we we find the right partner for the long term and at the right value, very similar to what we did for Scarborough but encouraged by progress.
Great. Maybe another 1 for you, Graham. Just on Slide 23, your title are delivering consistent reliable returns. Certainly, the payout ratio has been consistent for the last few years. But obviously, the absolute dividend has tracked underlying NPAT lower. I don't know how much you've looked at 2026, where consensus -- the full year consensus dividend is just $0.55 a share and payout, which is obviously less than the final dividend does announce here, I appreciate a lot can happen through the year. But just I was wondering if you could provide some observations on where consensus sits at the moment and hypothetically, if we do turn out to be right for a change, are you comfortable with this level of dividend in '26? Or would you see this additional flexibility for the company to potentially top up the dividend so if you can place set down downs of additional equity as we [indiscernible].
Thanks, Nik. Yes, you will know from our capital management framework that we do have that flexibility through the framework to be able to look at things like special dividends or buybacks. But what I would say, first and foremost is that 2026 is very much a transition year. We have the major Pluto turnaround, which is -- we do every 3 or 4 years. And then a part of that is doing the tie-ins relating to Scarborough. And then we also have Scarborough coming online in Q4 and delivering the first cargo. So look, I think there's some critical work that has to happen. And we'll see how work progresses through the year, and we can start to narrow that range on production. We'll also have a look at what prices are doing. We'll have a look at how Sangomar and the rest of the business is performing and then we'll determine where we're at.
But certainly, the capital management framework allows for it. But first and foremost is we need to guide through 2026, where it is a big year for us. We have a lot to do. and we'll continue to update you through the quarterlies on that.
Your next question comes from Rob Koh with [indiscernible].
May I ask for some color on decommissioning activities this year. And in particular, I guess, fast straight platform removal and where that sits in the in the timing, if it's not this year? Or where is it over the next few years?
Yes. Thanks, Rob. Decommissioning activities, it's an important part of our portfolio and RECONNECT we achieved some good highlights there. We importantly completed all the drilling and abandonment -- sorry, the production and abandonment of our wells across our closed facilities at Stibor Griffin Minerva, and we completed the infield program [indiscernible] is legacy closed assets.
Moving forward, we've guided that we'll be in that range of $500 million to $800 million of expenditure in 2026. And Batra is going to be the major campaign coming forward with platform removals targeted for 2027. And so we'll continue on decommissioning, but it is now part of the everyday business of Woodside in Australia.
Yes. Second question, just wondering if you can give us a sense with your unit production costs, obviously, good performance there in 2025. But the composition of costs are changing slightly with Beaumont coming in. Can you give us a -- and my understanding is that the processing costs there don't necessarily fall into unit production costs. Could you perhaps just give us a sense of how you're thinking about the overall cost structure of the business this year?
Yes. Maybe I'll kick off with that question, Rob, and then pass across to Graham. The operating assets continue to have cost efficiency focuses year-on-year. And as we saw in our results in 2025, we had an outstanding outcome, both in absolute costs and in unit costs. 2026 has the Pluto turnaround. So this will impact not just the production outlook for the year, but it also comes with costs. And so we will see in 2026, increased costs at the Pluto asset. As we start to bring on Scarborough, we will have a new asset, and so that comes with additional costs.
Beaumont new ammonia will feature in 2026 as that asset continues to come up online. And we have made the distinction between production costs, where we have our existing assets running facilities with upstream facilities to the costs associated with either tolling or feedstock at Beaumont new ammonia. And so these will be separate line items that we'll be guiding you on during the course of the year.
No, I think let's capture it well. I think if anything, Rob, we're trying to increase transparency on the cost of the business going forward. As Liz touched on, production is more about our traditional business, production costs, more about our traditional business and very much around what we control and getting down to operational cost efficiencies, et cetera. And then as with the new line that we've provided for 2026 guidance on as a part of the Q4 production report, feed gas services and processing costs, that's including Beaumont new ammonia and some of the tolling and feed gas processing costs.
So there'll be good transparency in our line items and you'll be able to see that flow through, and it started with the guidance for FY '26.
The next question comes from Sol Kevin with [indiscernible].
Liz, and Graham, the first question is, can you give us perhaps a steer on your thinking where -- hopefully, we see sell-downs sooner than later. But in the event that sell-downs take a bit longer -- do you see our sell-downs being a precondition to sanctioning trades 4, 5 at Louisiana? Or would you -- if sell-downs haven't happened yet, would you prefer to going ahead with Trans anyway because it's more optimal from a cost of development perspective. How do you lean in your thinking between those 2 options?
Yes. Thanks for the question. Trains 4 and 5 are a great opportunity for Woodside. They would be a highly advantaged development for us because they're able to take the benefits of the installed infrastructure the Trains 1, 2 and 3 already have. Importantly, the site where we're installing Louisiana LNG has all the permits in place to enable 2 additional trains and feed was completed. So we have a lot of our head start on trains 4 and 5. But as you referenced, the important feature for us, particularly in 2026, is getting further sell-down in the holdco level for Trains 1, 2 and 3. And the foundation partners of Stonepeak and Williams, they've got opportunity to participate in expansion if that's something that is progressing. But our focus does continue to be on holdco sell-down of Trains 1, 2 and 3.
I think it's also worth noting that we have a number of opportunities to do additional developments on our assets. We talked to Trains 4 and 5. And in Capital Markets Day, we showed the benefit of expansion in 4 and 5 in terms of our sales volume growth and our cash flow benefit. We also have additional opportunities that we'll be competing with Trains 4 and 5 for capital. So we'll be very disciplined around our assessment of where to invest further. The capital allocation framework remains unchanged, as Graham mentioned, and all our investments will need to be assessed against that and then they will actually need to compete with each other for capital going forward.
Second question on Scarborough. You've got the floater on site now, you're giving something I think about a 9-plus month window into your first cargo. That's double the length of time, for example, that Santos target Ross. Can you give us some comes to why that time is so lengthy? And what your level of confidence is on Scarborough starting in September versus first cargo out just after Christmas.
Yes. Thank you. Yes, Scapa energy project at year-end was 94% complete, as you noted. And we continue to be on track for that fourth quarter cargo for first cargo. Let me help you understand what's ahead of us, though. Offshore, we need to complete the installation of the floating production unit, and we need to pull in the rises in the umbilical. Then we need to go through a process of dewatering subsea equipment, and then we complete the commissioning of the top sides. And then that allows us to start opening up the wells and flowing hydrocarbons and pressuring the trunk line. And I think importantly, these offshore activities are subject to weather conditions. And so there is variation in the assumptions on how long all of this will take.
Onshore though, we need to complete construction and commissioning activities at Pluto Train 2. And once we have the gas from Scarborough, we then go through a process of start-up activities working from the front to the back of the train. You go through cooling down of the systems and then achieving steady-state operation. We are absolutely laser-like focused on delivery of this project. And so we are confident in our ability to meet our fourth quarter 2026 delivery.
Your next question comes from Dale Koenders with Barrenjoey.
I was hoping maybe it's a question for Graham. You could help us understand what the contracting status is for Beaumont in terms of gas supply and ammonia what prices they're exposed to if this is spot. And with the ramp-up of the project, how you think that earnings growth will come through over the next 12 or 18 months? .
Yes. Thanks, Dale. Look, I might kick off and then I'll pass across to Graham. So the Beaumont new ammonia project, we achieved first ammonia as we highlighted in December 2025. And and we're in a process of ramping up the full capacity of that facility. OCI continued to be the operator of Beaumont until we reach the performance conditions, and they'll pass that facility across the Woodside targeted for the first half of this year. And then as we move into 2026, we'll be progressively moving to a lower carbon opportunity as we get the facilities from Linde up and running and the CCS project that ExxonMobil is doing will commence operations.
Regarding supply, the supply of both nitrogen and hydrogen is done by others supporting the project. Our investment in ammonia was the ammonia element of the project. And so we are reliant on upstream suppliers, meeting their obligations to supply the facility. And so those contracts continue to operate through 2026, and we look forward to ramping up the facility going forward.
In terms of offtake, we have seen genuine interest in the ammonia products, both the conventional gray ammonia as well as the lower carbon ammonia. And so we continue to layer contracts and commitments with customers as the facility continues to ramp up its production.
Yes. And I think all I would add is the approach to the marketing team and B&A team are taking is we want that flexibility through ramping up to full production. And I think the way the team are lowering in contracts is good. We have a good fair share of the volumes locked away, mostly domestically. And it's worthwhile noting it could change tomorrow Dale, but the domestic prices in the U.S. for ammonia at the moment are over $600 a tonne. So we are coming online at a health -- in a healthy environment at this point in time.
Yes. I guess the question is you previously said that project would be earnings accretive when you get to the clean ammonia stage. But given that real strength in pricing domestically, it seems like you might actually see earnings contribution on?
Look, it will come down to the startup, the ramp-up and how it progresses. But yes, I would like to think from a cash cost perspective, we should be in a favorable position. But there's a lot of water to pass under the bridge. There's a lot of work to do as we ultimately take control or operate a ship and then start to ramp up. But it's a healthy market. Yes, I'd love to be in a position to report back on these results in a year's time talking about how well it's performing and the cash flow it's generating. But this first year will -- there's a lot of things we need to work through.
Your next question comes from Tom Allen with UBS.
Sort of big bet on tax day despite the guidance released in January. But looking into we expect to step up in petroleum resource rent tax with CARA coming online. I was hoping you could provide some commentary on how we should be scoping that lift in PRRT to '26 and '27 relative to '25. And when you could clarify some of the key uncertainties that might dictate where PRRT lands?
Yes, I can take that, Tom. Look, I think before I answer your question, it's worthwhile calling out that as we mentioned in our results. Our all-in effective tax rate globally was 45%. And also for Australia, it was 44%. PRRT is only one component of the taxes we pay from our business in Australia. We are -- in 2023, '24, the ATO noted that we were Australia's largest PRRT payer, and we're the eighth largest corporate taxpayer. So look, I just want to give a little bit of context and background to what we do pay. It's more than just PRRT, Northwest Shelf alone through its royalties and excise has paid $40 billion at 100% since its inception. So it's only 1 component of a broader basket of taxes that we pay, which brings our all-in effective underlying tax rate in Australia of 44%. So I just wanted to put that first home, so you could hear that loud and clear.
In terms of part, it is a broad calculation it relies a lot on prices. But in theory with what you're saying with Scarborough coming online and the changes in the PRRT legislation back in '24, Yes, Scarborough will be paying PRRT and that should increase the overall amount of PRRT we're paying. But as I said, a lot of it relies on the pricing that we're incurring. The more -- the higher prices, the more PRRT we pay. So there's a lot of moving variables. But all up, we pay our fair share of tax in in Australia at 44% all-in.
That came through loud and clear on the tax contribution. I'm sure the [indiscernible]. But just to follow that, are you able to provide some sort of guide just on the year-on-year movement in PRRT. It's obviously difficult to forecast, but it becomes an important part of getting our underlying impact in dividend outlook, right? Any type of quantitative guidance you can share on where that might move over the next couple of years on your planning assumptions?
We haven't put anything out on that, Tom. So I prefer not to say at this point in time, just on the basis that there's so many moving parts. As we have a greater line of sight on the ramp-up of Scarborough we'll provide more insight to PRRT.
That's helpful. Last comment for me was just the North West Shelf joint venture continues to be reshaped. We're reading a Shell now following Chevron over 12 months ago, seeking an exit from that joint venture. Can you comment on the indicative CapEx, key activities at Woodside intend to progress around backfill for the joint venture and in particular, Browse over the next couple of years.
Yes. Thanks, Tom. As you note, Shell has shared that they're looking to take an offtake for their equity in the Northwest shelf. So we stay across that. the North West Shelf joint venture though continues to be interested in taking third-party gas. It's important to note that it already is doing that, the [indiscernible] gas plant. It processes gas through the Pluto interconnector for the Pluto joint venture -- it also processes gas from Waitsia. And so it's demonstrated its capability at processing third-party gas. And really, the opportunity is to see where the browse could be processed through [indiscernible] Gas plant. The Browse joint venture remains committed with 3 very important activities needed before progression can be seen.
We need to ensure that we have an investable project and that the concept continues to be refined to enable that. We need to have commercial agreements in place between the Browse joint venture and the North West Shelf joint venture, which continue to be worked, and we need environmental approvals. And so the Browse project is very committed to progressing each of those work streams. -- and that will then enable work to progress and we can see whether the Karratha gas plant will be the solution for Browse.
Next question is from Gordon Ramsey with RBC Capital Markets.
I got another question on Beaumont new ammonia. Just trying to understand how you move forward with Phase 2 in that project? And how dependent you are on signing up contracts for clean ammonia sales, if there's not legislation globally to encourage that. What are the key factors that will move that project forward? I know, Liz, you mentioned obviously, the carbon sequestration by ExxonMobil and hydrogen and nitrogen supplies are obviously critical. But assuming they are there, is there a potential for this project to slow down if you aren't going to be able to sell the ammonia at a premium price because it's phosphate as low carbon or clean ammonia?
Yes. Thanks, Gordon. As you highlight, look, our focus at the moment is on the Phase 1 of the project and building out not only the production from the facility, but understanding the customer appetite for lower carbon ammonia. We're targeting 3 key regions for our customers. We're looking at the U.S. domestic market. We're looking at Europe and Asia Pacific. And it's fair to say that while there's interest in lower carbon ammonia, it's the uptake in demand is slower than we had forecast. And so we remain attuned to where customers are at in their desire for lower carbon ammonia. That's going to be an important part in playing into the timing of a Phase II development at Beaumont itself.
So we have a really great opportunity to be able to expand that facility. It will be able to take advantage of all the installed capital to date. And so it will be advantaged economically as a project, but it absolutely needs to have a customer market for it. And so that's something that we'll continue to keep a watch on. And it will need to meet our capital allocation framework. So we're going to be very disciplined with what we progress.
And my second question relates to, I think, when you were discussing Slide 8 you mentioned there was going to be dry dock maintenance of some of the Australian oil assets. Can you provide a bit more detail on what that involves?
Yes. So all of our assets undertake periodic turnarounds and for FPSOs, that often involves a dry dock. And so we do have 2 of our assets going for dry dock this year. It's on a sort of 5-year type cycle that they do. And so that's something that's normal course of business for us, just like it is to have turnarounds at our LNG facilities. And yes, the teams are well progressed for that. And that just features in our production outlook for the year.
You mentioned the assets in the downtime? Is that possible?
Look, I think we'll get the team maybe to follow up off-line with you on details like that, but it's just a normal part of our maintenance program for the year.
Your next question comes from Henry Meyer with Goldman Sachs.
Firstly, on production guidance for the employees quite a steep decline in oil production. I'm guessing that's primarily from Sangomar as it comes off flat, which is normal. But obviously, a function of lots of different variables to hope you could step through what the annual decline rate you're expecting in Sangomar is for this year and maybe the next few years before it tapers off to 10%, 15%, let's say.
Yes. Thanks, Henry, for that question. As you noted, there are a lot of different variables that go into the guidance for 2026, and and for the liquids production. It's important to note there isn't a particular target range. We've got a range, sorry, rather than a single point outlook here. And there's a number of little factors. I'll give you a sense of them. We do have natural field decline across both our Australia assets as well as our Gulf of America assets. And so that's built into the outlook.
We also have the Dilma Brunello transaction occurring, which is built in the FPSO maintenance program that we just spoke about. So they're all built in. The Pluto turnaround is also built in into liquids outlooks. We had the divestment in Angostura and then we have Sangamor. So Sangomar has done fantastically well with sitting on plateau for the bulk of 2025. And and it is now commencing decline. And so a variable for us is understanding that decline curve, as you are asking. And so we've made our best assessment, but we'll continue to guide during the course of 2026 as we understand how Sangomar performs.
And I think as we touched on earlier in the call, Henry, the 3 key drivers for us this year in terms of overall production performance and business performance is the Pluto turnaround. It's Scarborough coming online in that first cargo in the fourth quarter. And then it's the Sangomar reservoir performance. And as Liz touched on, it has come off plateau, but it continues to perform very, very well, but we'll keep you updated through the quarterly production reports on how that's progressing.
And maybe a follow-up on the Jono the services and processing costs for the year, which is good to get that transparency. Could you split that down to a few different components, if possible, particularly in how much of that tolling cost should be Scarborough going through Pluto that we could expect in the second half and then wrapping up to '27 as we hit capacity.
Yes. So we haven't provided that exact breakdown at this point in time, Henry. As I said, there's a lot of moving variables. But obviously, the core components are B&A operating costs, including the gas purchases, et cetera. And then it will include the tolls with Scarborough which is really the fourth quarter. So you can sort of draw a few dots together and a lot of that will relate to Beaumont new ammonia. But as we have more insight to ramp up and how Scarborough progressing as well, we can provide more clarity on that over time.
Your next question comes from Tom Wellington with Citi.
Just on the Marketing division performance. We saw margins soften through the second half on higher trading activities and noting that the segment contributed around 8% of group level EBIT for the year driven by a stronger first half performance. I was hoping that you could perhaps clarify some of the reasons behind this margin compression. And I guess, to what extent this was driven by tighter JK and Henry Hub spreads or if there are potentially fewer arbitrage opportunities or any portfolio mix factors to have been considered?
Yes. Thanks for your question, Tom. As we sort of highlighted in our opening presentation, marketing continues to be a very important part of the value equation for Woodside and it's consistently contributed around 10% of our earnings before income and tax for the last 3 years. And that's no change. However, we do see some quarter-to-quarter volatility, and we will see movement in certain line items depending on our optimization strategy. So in third quarter, for example, we had an opportunity with timing of produced equity cargoes where we're able to purchase a third-party cargo at gas hub prices and deliver it into a crude link contract.
The way this turns out in the accounts can make it harder to see some of these benefits. But we're very committed to understanding the benefit marketing brings to us, and we're very comfortable that we continue to see great uplift from the marketing activities.
Yes, great. Thanks for that. And I guess just to lead into -- I'm trying to get engaged to how we should think about these margins through the cycle. -- obviously, given the context of Louisiana LNG and Woodside's trading and optimization capabilities as being a key lever that it can pull in terms of getting to in terms of rate of return. Is there any further confidence or guide that you can give us that might see sort of some uplift support from this particular segment.
Yes. Thanks, Tom. Look, marketing is going to continue to be very important to us. But I think the best guidance we can give you is the contribution of 10% EBIT year-on-year and our 3-year track record demonstrates that, that's something we achieve I think where we sit today, that's going to be the best guidance for you.
Your next question comes from Baden Moore with CITIC CLSA.
On the hedging component you talked to, I think the 16 million barrels in '26. Just wondering what metrics you're targeting through that kind of program -- is this credit metric or just strongly understand why what a that's getting and whether you -- how do you think about whether you roll that forward to what would you target to roll that forward into '27 -- is my first question. And then second question, just it's been a bit in the press on the CEO succession, obviously. Just wondering if there's any updates on timing for that process.
Okay. I'll take the hedging. I'll leave the second 1 to Liz. But yes, look, it's a good question, Baden. And let's be very clear, we don't hedge to take a crystal ball on where prices will be. We very much hedge from a defensive perspective in the context of a heavy capital period for us. Over the last few years, we've hedged around the 30 million barrels, and that provides a baseload certainty on cash flows for us, and that allows us in a very simple language to be able to pay our bills. And so we're not trying to second guess or take a position on oil prices.
We're just trying to lock in a certain stream of flow of cash flows for the business. Where our business sits, it's unlikely you'll see us hedge on a forward curve below $70, but anything above 70%. We will look at that. As I've said, we've got a past history of going up to 30%, but we'll just wait and see what the forward curve looks like, but it's very much defensive and it's about securing and locking in a certain volume of cash, if you want to call it.
All right. Moving to your next question, CEO succession. I just want to acknowledge that the appointment of the CEO is a very important activity, and I know everyone is very interested in the outcome. But I want to reinforce that what I'm interested in and what I know is very important, along with the rest of the executive leadership team is that we continue to execute against our strategy and deliver shareholder value through our disciplined decision-making and our operational excellence. As we outlined in Capital Markets Day, we have a lot of priorities for 2026 and they're very clear.
We need to have safe and efficient operations. We have a lot of projects that we will be executing and our focus continues to be on the strategy that we shared at the end of 2025. So the Chair has made it clear that the Board is assessing a number of internal candidates and external talent and that they intend to make an announcement in the first quarter of 2026. So we'll all wait to see that.
The next question comes from Sarah Kerr with [indiscernible].
Just my first question, starting in the U.S. So we still start the year of retail or for gas demand between LNG facilities and domestic demand, and we're seeing a differ increasing demand coming from utilities, especially with more data centers or more power area. I was just wondering how do you see in LNG in that landscape? And does that give you confidence in the market, I guess, is that you could get our feedstock.
Thank you for the question. Look, the Louisiana LNG project is ideally situated to benefit from the supply in the U.S. We have a very large opportunity with domestic supply in the U.S., notwithstanding the interest from data centers and others in accessing domestic gas more than 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas that is available to LNG projects and others to use. We have a lot of transport infrastructure that we've already committed the foundation requirements we need with pipeline options, and we've got a foundational contract with BP for supply.
So we're confident that our project will be able to access the asset needs going forward. And we continue to see opportunity as an LNG producer to be able to access gas.
And just a quick question in Australia. So looking at fast straight, obviously, seeing overdue exploration phase going through in offshore there. We're seeing some discoveries as well. There's also some fantastic projects that are smaller developers have close to Woodside infrastructure. Just wondering, is Woodside looking at doing more of your own organic backfill or looking to possibly tie in and partner with the small developers.
Yes. Best rate supply is approximately 40% of the East Coast gas demand, and there's been a real back stay of the East Coast gas market over decades, and we'll be taking operatorship from ExxonMobil in the middle of 2026. As part of that decision, and as operator, we've identified 4 potential development wells that we believe could be progressed to deliver up to 200 petajoules of sales gas to the market. And so we'll be taking those through the technical development phases as we take over operatorship. And so we continue to be interested in available development for the best trade and look forward to being the operator going forward.
Now I might recognize the time here and call the end to questions. Thank you, everybody, for listening in and participating today. Just a reminder, we will be hosting our Sustainability Investor Briefing on the 16th of March, which I invite you all to join and I look forward to speaking with you at other upcoming events. Thank you.
Woodside Energy Group — Analyst/Investor Day - Woodside Energy Group Ltd
1. Management Discussion
Well, good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to Woodside Energy's 2025 Capital Markets Day here in Sydney. I'm Vanessa Martin and recently became the President of -- Vice President of Investor Relations. I've been with Woodside for 12 years and most recently oversaw the final investment decision of Louisiana LNG.
I'd like to welcome those joining us on the webcast. From wherever you are, it is great to have you involved. Today, we are meeting on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge their continued connection to these impressive lands and waters. We pay our respects to Gadigal Elders, past and present, and honor their enduring traditions and culture.
Well, it's been 2 years since our last investor briefing in Sydney. It's been a very busy and exciting period for us as we've progressed execution of our strategy.
Before we get started, I do need to address a couple of important points. If there is an emergency, could you please leave all items behind and follow the instructions of the hotel staff. I also ask that you please take the time to read the disclaimer, the assumptions and other important information on Slides 2, 3 and 4 of the deck. For awareness, all dollar figures in the presentation refer to U.S. dollars unless noted otherwise. And finally, can I please ask that you put your mobile phones on silent for the duration of the presentation.
We'll be covering a lot of ground today as we aim to provide you with a detailed overview of our strategic direction insights and insights into our key business activities. You will first hear from our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Meg O'Neill, who will provide an overview of our high-performing global business, describing how we are executing our strategy to deliver long-term returns and outline the exciting opportunities in front of us. You will also hear from other members of the Woodside executive leadership team, who will highlight how each of their business areas is enabling Woodside to maximize the operational performance of the base business, deliver enduring value and create future opportunities for our investors.
We're then going to take a short break, after which Meg will lead a question-and-answer session. So I ask that you please hold your questions until that time. We've also got lunch available after the presentation, and we would welcome you to stay and take the opportunity to ask any questions that you have.
The slide presentation has also been published on our website if you wish to download a copy. For those in the room, we've provided one for you. And for those online, it's accessible to you as well.
So I'd now like to welcome Meg to the stage to begin today's Capital Markets Day.
Well, thank you, Vanessa, and welcome to everyone in the room and online. I'm pleased that you're joining us for Woodside's 2025 Capital Markets Day.
Woodside is a global energy company headquartered in Australia with operations on 3 continents and more than 4,500 employees around the world. Established more than 70 years ago and with more than 40 years of operating experience, we have a long track record of supplying energy reliably to domestic and international customers.
In 2024, we sold 204 million barrels of oil equivalent with a peer-leading EBITDA margin of 70% from a diversified product portfolio across LNG, pipeline gas, oil and natural gas liquids. We translate our strong business performance into returns for shareholders, having paid approximately $11 billion in dividends since 2022.
For more than 40 years, we have been developing our operations in Australia, today operating approximately 19 million tonnes per annum of LNG with further 5 Mtpa under construction at our Pluto site in Western Australia. And we are well underway in development of an additional 16.5 million tonnes per annum of operated LNG export capacity, marking a step change in our scale as we apply our proven capabilities to the Louisiana LNG project in the U.S.
For nearly 20 years, we have also been producing oil internationally from key assets in the Gulf of America and more recently, offshore Senegal. And we have another 100,000 barrels of oil per day under development offshore Mexico in our Trion project. We see strong growth potential in lower carbon ammonia with first production from our Beaumont New Ammonia Project targeted for late 2025 and lower carbon ammonia production in the second half of next year.
Supported by our integrated marketing portfolio, Woodside is building an LNG and oil platform with global scale, which can supply both Pacific and Atlantic energy demand. From 2024 through to 2032, total sales volumes are expected to grow by 50% to over 300 million barrels of oil equivalents. We have a global growth trajectory underpinned by a strong balance sheet and financial discipline that combines long-life LNG assets with high-return oil projects and positions Woodside to capitalize on global energy demand and deliver sustained shareholder value.
This growth will target increasing energy demand across Asia and Europe, where energy security, affordability and decarbonization are core priorities. And by 2032, Woodside expects to deliver approximately $9 billion in net operating cash flow, representing over 6% compound annual growth rate in sales and cash flow.
Now our legacy is grounded in the creation of Australia's LNG industry, beginning with the first production of domestic gas from the North West Shelf Project in 1984, followed in 1989 by the first LNG shipment to Japan. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, we deepened our LNG expertise, delivering Pluto LNG in 2012 and expanding our marketing organization. During this period, we also grew our oil production, operating multiple FPSOs across Australia.
Now we've since grown internationally, diversifying the portfolio and developing high-quality assets such as Sangomar offshore Senegal. In 2021, we took FID on Scarborough, a world-class LNG project that further strengthens our Australian base. In 2022, we merged with BHP Petroleum, adding a premier U.S. Gulf business, East Coast Australian gas and new global opportunities. In 2024, we acquired Tellurian's Driftwood LNG, now renamed Louisiana LNG and OCI's Clean Ammonia Project, which is now Beaumont New Ammonia. And earlier this year, we reached FID for the first 3 trains at Louisiana LNG. Through these decisive actions, Woodside has established a high-quality portfolio matched with technical and operational expertise and customer relationships on which we can build continued performance and growth.
Now Woodside's competitive advantages are clear. We have a diversified portfolio of world-class assets with a low breakeven price of $34 per barrel on an adjusted free cash flow basis. We have demonstrated operational excellence with outstanding reliability. For example, in the third quarter this year, our Pluto LNG plant achieved 100% reliability, while our Senegal oil development has achieved better than 98% in its first year.
We have proven expertise in delivering, optimizing and debottlenecking large developments. We have a track record of delivering energy direct to end users built on long-term customer relationships with more than 7,000 LNG cargoes delivered globally. And finally, we have a strong balance sheet with commitments to financial discipline.
Now you'll hear more from Liz and Daniel on how these capabilities are applied across our Australian and international businesses and from Mark on how our decades-long customer relationships continue to set us apart. These strengths underpin our ability to generate strong cash flows, reinvest strategically and return value to shareholders, all guided by a disciplined capital management framework, which Graham will discuss. Over our 40 years of operations, we've built a foundation of excellence, and we're now applying these proven advantages to our next phase of growth.
Woodside is a compelling investment, supplying energy to meet growing global demand, backed by a disciplined track record of execution. Our world-class operations, integrated value chain, long-term customer relationships and investment-grade balance sheet combine to create durable long-term cash flows. With a plan to generate over 6% compound annual growth rate in net operating cash flow through 2032 and tangible near-term growth catalysts, we're delivering disciplined growth to underpin strong shareholder returns.
Now Woodside's strategy is to thrive through the energy transition. And as we look ahead to the next decade, we are focused on delivering this strategy through 3 actions, which are underpinned by a continued focus on sustainability and innovation. First, we focus on maximizing performance from the base business, extracting full value from every asset and molecule through safe, reliable operations, continuous improvement and disciplined portfolio management. Second, our focus is on delivery for customers, partners and shareholders, executing our major development projects safely, on cost and on schedule. And finally, our strategy will be realized by creating the next wave of long-term growth. We evaluate our portfolio and future opportunities through the lens of our disciplined capital allocation framework to ensure high-quality, durable growth and value creation. All of these strategic actions are underpinned by a continued focus on sustainability and innovation.
Now Liz will talk to you about how we are continually innovating in our business to deliver real solutions. I'll now take you through our approach to sustainability and how we intend to deliver on our strategy.
At Woodside, we regard strong sustainability performance as a key driver of our overall business and our ability to generate enduring shareholder return. Our company-wide sustainability strategy sets clear objectives across 4 material areas: health, safety and well-being; climate; indigenous cultural heritage and engagement; and environment and biodiversity. We have made positive progress across all these areas to date, and they remain central with how we operate and grow our business.
I'll now take you through how we intend to deliver on our strategy. We maximize performance from our base business by maintaining an uncompromising focus on safety, delivering consistent, high-performing operations and driving continuous improvement through cost discipline and efficiency. In 2024, we had no Tier 1 safety events or permanent injuries with more than 23 million exposure hours across our global activity set.
Our operated LNG assets have averaged 98% reliability over the last 4 years, which compares exceptionally well against our global peers. As well as strong performance in these operational areas, we also maximize the returns from our assets through brownfield developments, portfolio optimization and utilizing our marketing expertise to capture additional value. This approach is embedded in our business today and going forward.
We are well positioned to deliver disciplined cash-generative growth across oil, LNG and gas, and new energy projects. We have deep project delivery capability and approach developments with a mindset -- with a commercial mindset that protects and enhances value. Within oil, we are focused on delivering the Trion project, an ultra-deepwater development located approximately 180 kilometers off the Mexican coastline. This asset, like Sangomar, is a material oil asset that provides a high rate of return and rapid payback.
Now the heart of the Woodside business is LNG, where we are building on our strengths through development of long-life, low-decline assets like Scarborough and Louisiana that will double the size of our LNG portfolio. Additionally, we are investing in a focused manner in scalable new energy opportunities to meet global demand and where we can leverage our core skill sets, such as Beaumont New Ammonia. Together, these projects will deliver a step change in production and cash flow, maximize our base business going forward and strengthen Woodside's position as a leading global energy supplier.
Now before we move on to how these growth projects are delivering value for our portfolio, I want to spend some time on one of our defining decisions that we made this year. Louisiana LNG is a game changer for Woodside, set to position our company as a global LNG powerhouse and deliver enduring shareholder returns. We will be uniquely positioned with LNG operations on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Australia, giving us a competitive advantage to optimize delivery to both European and Asian markets.
Louisiana LNG is advantaged from a cost perspective, given the lump sum contract we have with Bechtel, a truly Tier 1 contractor. This derisked development carries further expansion optionality and will deliver strong cash flow potential for decades to come given the abundant supply of low-cost U.S. gas.
And the LNG playbook we've developed in Australia for our development and operations differentiates us from other operators on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Integration across the value chain allows us to capture value at each step and provides exposure to international energy pricing, which can enhance revenue.
I'll now play a short video highlighting our progress so far at Louisiana LNG, and Daniel will share more on our detail later.
[Presentation]
We are set to deliver transformative growth through the 2030s via the combination of our base business and sanctioned projects at Beaumont New Ammonia, Scarborough, Trion and Louisiana LNG. These projects not only maintain our business at its current level but provide incremental growth into the next decade. Sales volumes are expected to increase by more than 50%, reaching over 300 million barrels of oil equivalent by 2032. This growth supports an expected step change in net operating cash, rising from around $5 billion today to approximately $9 billion by 2032, enabling Woodside to deliver durable value through the cycle.
Now beyond our base business and the current growth projects, we do have a pipeline of oil, LNG and gas, and new energy opportunities. These include high-value brownfield expansions and longer life LNG projects that can sustain value for decades. These opportunities provide us with choices and flexibility that Woodside has previously not had in terms of product, region and type of development.
Exploration and M&A will enable us to access new opportunities, while strategic partnerships enable us to bring in complementary skill sets, utilize our expertise and share risk, whether capital project, operational or other project risk. And through portfolio management, we will optimize our asset base, allowing us to focus resources, manage capital requirements and bring in strategic partners.
When we assess new opportunities, we focus on strategic fit and the ability to leverage our existing technical, operational and market capabilities as well as the evolving global energy mix. Each option must compete for capital in alignment with our capital allocation framework and the breadth of opportunities we have provides flexibility in what we pursue. So importantly, whilst we have choices, they are made within strict guardrails and with disciplined capital management, which also takes into account return of capital to shareholders.
Let's move to shareholder returns, and this is an area I'm particularly proud of. We see this as an essential part of the Woodside investment thesis, and I'm delighted that we've been able to pay out approximately $11 billion to shareholders since 2022 while reinvesting in the business and maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Our track record on dividends is impressive. As you can see, we have consistently maintained an annualized dividend yield averaging more than 8% since 2022 and paying at the upper end of our target range for over a decade. Importantly, for our Australian shareholders, our dividends are fully franked.
Woodside has an exciting future grounded in opportunity, execution and discipline. In the next section, I'll discuss the strong fundamentals for our products that are supported by growing global energy demand.
I'll now take a step back to discuss the overall energy landscape and how Woodside is positioned to capitalize on increasing demand. We expect oil to remain a key part of the energy mix for the foreseeable future, while LNG is set to become even more important as customers balance their energy security and decarbonization objectives. These 2 products will make up approximately 90% of Woodside's portfolio in the 2030s. On top of that, there is a growing role for new energy products, including lower carbon ammonia, an area in which Woodside has strategically invested.
Energy underpins every aspect of modern life. Turning on the lights, charging a phone, heating or cooling our homes, all rely on access to reliable energy. It's embedded in everything we do. And as standards of living improve, the world needs more of it.
Growing global demand is being fueled by population growth, rising GDP and the industrialization of emerging economies. At the same time, power demand is also increasing in developed nations, driven by the rapid expansion of AI and data centers. And as a result, countries are seeking energy that is affordable, reliable and lower carbon.
The complexity of the energy transition is becoming apparent with greater recognition that the transition will take time. These factors mean that traditional energy sources will remain critical for decades to come, and Woodside is well placed to meet this need, with a strong track record of reliability, value delivery and a clear focus on sustainable operations, including managing our net equity Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Oil is a core product for Woodside, underpinned by strong long-term demand fundamentals. Oil demand is forecast to remain resilient as the world's energy mix evolves. As existing fields naturally decline, continued investment will be essential to sustain supply and meet this ongoing demand.
Turning to LNG. From 2015 to 2024, global LNG demand grew by around 65%, and it's forecast to grow another 60% by 2035, driven by strong demand growth across Europe and Asia. These are 2 regions where Woodside has recently signed new long-term supply agreements. Through the rest of this decade, supply and demand is expected to remain balanced, but as we move into the 2030s, demand starts to outpace supply even when you factor in projects already operating under construction and planned. That is a clear signal that more investment will be needed to meet the world's growing energy demands.
We're also seeing a steady build-out of regasification capacity, which reinforces the growing global appetite for LNG and ensures new supply can be absorbed by markets. Asia will remain central to global energy growth, accounting for the majority of future gas demand. And Woodside is competitively advantaged for this growth given our geographic proximity. With Scarborough and Louisiana LNG in our pipeline, Woodside is well placed to meet this next wave of demand, delivering competitive, reliable and flexible energy into these key markets.
Now even as LNG demand has grown strongly, it is still only a small portion of the global energy mix relative to coal, with LNG trade only being around 12% of coal consumption globally in 2024 on an energy demand basis. There is a significant opportunity for LNG to replace coal, providing an affordable and reliable way for countries to lower their emissions while still meeting growing energy demand.
When used to generate electricity, gas typically produces around half the life cycle emissions of coal. LNG is globally mobile, can be scaled using existing infrastructure and provides the reliability that intermittent renewables can't yet deliver at scale. This makes it uniquely positioned in the energy transition.
Now against this backdrop of rising gas demand on a global scale, I want to highlight some specific opportunities we see within Asian markets. Southeast Asia is set to experience significant population and economic growth through 2040 with a further 50 million people over today's population of approximately 620 million people driving an average 3.7% GDP growth rate across the region. This demographic tailwind is expected to drive a corresponding increase in demand for affordable, reliable energy. As domestic supply in this region falls sharply from 2030, there will be a larger gap, which Woodside is well equipped to fill.
Now China also presents a compelling opportunity with demand poised to grow across all sectors. China has quadrupled regasification capacity over the past 10 years.
Now when considering how we position Woodside for future LNG demand, it's important to note the significant evolution of the LNG market over the past 2 decades from a small group of buyers and sellers to a truly global market with over 50 countries importing and a deep liquid trading environment. With strong positions in both the U.S. and Australia, 2 of the world's key supply hubs, Woodside is well placed to meet the rising LNG demand across Europe and Asia, where energy security and reliability remain priorities. Mark will talk later about how Woodside's approach to marketing has proactively evolved with the market to capture additional value.
Now moving to new energy. As the world needs more energy, lower carbon ammonia can displace existing ammonia in traditional sectors like nitrogen-based fertilizers and as a feedstock for chemical processes. It can also be used for lower emission energy in certain applications. By 2050, lower carbon ammonia is expected to represent around 60% of total ammonia demand or roughly 240 million tonnes per annum.
This transition is underway with demand projected to reach about 75 million tonnes by 2035 as industries decarbonize. This shift creates a structural growth opportunity for producers who can deliver reliable lower carbon supply at scale. Woodside's Beaumont New Ammonia Project is designed to capture this emerging demand.
Now over the long term, we're seeing strong regulatory tailwinds emerging around the world that are supporting demand for lower carbon ammonia. Governments are introducing carbon pricing, emissions trading schemes and clean fuel standards, which are accelerating the shift towards lower carbon industrial feedstocks and fuels. The pace of implementation of these schemes has been slower than anticipated, but we remain positive on the long-term fundamentals as the world decarbonizes.
In traditional sectors like chemicals and agriculture, policies such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism are expected to drive companies to switch from conventional feedstocks to lower carbon alternatives. And looking forward, the next wave of growth is coming from new uses, ammonia for power generation, shipping and as a hydrogen carrier. Frameworks being developed across Japan, South Korea and the European Union are sending clear signals that lower carbon ammonia will play an important role in helping these economies meet their decarbonization goals.
Woodside has a clear strategy, to thrive through the energy transition. To achieve this, we will execute diligently over the next decade to deliver long-term returns to our shareholders. We will maximize the value of our base business by leveraging our core capabilities to extend the life of our assets and drive efficiency. We will deliver large-scale cash-generative growth projects that strengthen our portfolio, and we will create new opportunities by evolving our portfolio to meet growing energy demand and capture long-term value.
So as I'm sure you can tell, we're pretty excited about the performance of our current business and the many opportunities ahead of us for long-term growth and value. You'll now hear more from our leadership team about what they are doing to contribute to our maximize, deliver and create activities.
With that, I'd like to welcome our Chief Financial Officer, Graham Tiver, to the stage.
Thank you, Meg, and good morning, everyone. It's great to see many familiar faces here today, and I'm looking forward to talking about our continued progress in delivering sustainable growth and strong returns for our shareholders.
I'm confident that we are executing our strategy to maximize value of our base business and deliver disciplined cash-generative growth. We are taking a prudent approach as we expand into new opportunities, those that will create durable long-term value. And importantly, we are maintaining a strong balance sheet to support our investment-grade credit rating and continuing strong shareholder returns while ensuring we remain resilient and well positioned for the future.
Starting with our disciplined approach to capital management. This flows right through the business and starts with maximizing the value of the base business through a consistent focus on unit costs. Running our operations efficiently and keeping unit production costs down ensures we get the most out of our existing producing assets. We apply the same disciplined approach to our growth projects by carefully managing capital costs and strategically planning for operations. Equally important is maintaining discipline in our investment decisions.
We have a clear capital allocation framework. For Louisiana LNG, Meg has spoken about some of the characteristics that made the investment attractive beyond just the returns targets. These include the strategic partnership with Stonepeak, who provided funding on an accelerated basis to align with the cash profile of our broader portfolio. The final part is our disciplined approach to position the balance sheet to support investment-grade credit rating, provide returns to shareholders and deliver our growth while also safeguarding against market uncertainties.
Moving on to our capital allocation -- capital management framework, I should say, which remains unchanged. This framework sets the principles for how we optimize value and shareholder returns across the investment cycle, providing flexibility to fund value-accretive growth while also delivering strong shareholder returns. We are disciplined in how we position the balance sheet to achieve our goals. There are 2 parameters that we use as guardrails. Firstly, maintaining our investment-grade credit rating is fundamental. Secondly, we believe it is prudent to maintain a gearing ratio that provides flexibility throughout the cycle. Our target gearing range is 10% to 20%, and although we may temporarily at times sit outside of this range during capital-intensive periods, we manage it very, very closely.
Our dividend policy is to pay a minimum of 50% of our underlying profit, and we target a range of 50% to 80%. We know how important returns are to our shareholders, and over the last decade, we have consistently paid at the top end of this range, averaging a dividend yield of over 8% since 2022. Our business is in great shape today for shareholder returns and delivering the growth portfolio.
Before I start on this slide, we have included a detailed assumptions page in the appendix of the pack covering the cases we are presenting. Importantly, we include our major projects and Louisiana Trains 4 and 5. Our strong base business and value-generating projects are positioning us for significant cash flow growth through to the end of the decade.
Looking at the returns on our ongoing investments, our mid-case has an impressive cash flow growth of 6% compounding annually through to 2032, which highlights the quality of the opportunities we are investing in. The cash flow attributable to Louisiana LNG are strong and will boost the portfolio from targeted first LNG in 2029 onwards and will continue strongly into the future given the abundant upstream gas supply. We have high-quality assets with the 2026, '27 average breakeven of $34 per barrel. The low and high case sensitivities that flex price and capital expenditure show both the resilience of the portfolio in the low case and the upside cash generating potential in the high case.
The mid-case sources and uses chart in the middle of the slide shows the transformative investments that provide strong cash flow into the future, underpinning shareholder returns. The ability to deliver this significant cash flow growth is not a function of decisions made in the past year. Instead, it reflects a concerted focus over the last 5 years, dating back to when decisions were made to invest in Sangomar and Scarborough and then looking forward, its sustained focus on delivery. Additionally, we are demonstrating the resilience in our portfolio. Even in a low case scenario, we are well placed to deliver robust shareholder returns and generate cash.
We've spoken about some of the growth we are investing in. It is important to reiterate that we are disciplined in our capital allocation decisions. Our capital allocation framework remains unchanged. We have clear targets for each of our projects. This disciplined approach is key to ensuring the quality and robustness of the business as we look forward.
This slide gives you a sense of our indicative capital profile going forward. From a capital expenditure of approximately $5 billion in 2024 when we exclude acquisitions, committed capital expenditure is forecast to roll off as Scarborough, Trion and the Louisiana trains start producing. In the latter years, we assume CapEx continues at $3 billion per annum, allowing completion of current projects, sustaining capital allowance of $1.5 billion and an allowance for additional value-accretive projects. The significant cash being generated will feed into our capital management framework to strengthen the balance sheet, provide shareholder returns and support future investment in the business. As Meg highlighted earlier, while we have options, these decisions must be made with guardrails and with disciplined capital management.
While we are in a period of investment, I'd like to spend some time today focusing on the balance sheet and highlighting some proactive measures we employ to ensure its continued strength. We have $8.3 billion in liquidity to support our capital commitments and shareholder returns. This has been strengthened by cash injections from portfolio optimizations, including the strategic partnering with Stonepeak and Williams on Louisiana LNG and the divestment of later-life assets in Trinidad and Tobago.
Partnering with Stonepeak and Williams has reduced Woodside's share of Louisiana capital expenditure from $17.5 billion to less than $10 billion, and we aim to sell up to a further 20% of Holdco. Our debt portfolio weighted average term to maturity has increased to over 6 years. And as our projects come online, we see reduced debt levels creating opportunity to enhance returns.
So thank you. Great to talk to you and speak with you today, and I'll hand over to Liz. But before doing so, I'd just like to conclude by saying we are delivering. By 2032, we will generate $9 billion in net operating cash flow. After investing in the business and returning $3 billion to shareholders, we'll maintain a cash surplus and we'll continue to prioritize strong shareholder returns. The future looks bright. Thank you.
Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Liz Westcott, and I look after our Australian business. I joined Woodside in 2023 after more than 30 years in the energy industry, working for ExxonMobil and Energy Australia. Woodside is such an exciting company to be part of, and so it is my pleasure to share some highlights with you all today.
Let me start by outlining what I'm going to talk about. I'll be discussing how Woodside has been operating world-class assets for decades and how we're continuing to build from this foundation to expand our high-quality global portfolio. We're making the most of our existing operations while securing our future. Here in Australia, the Scarborough Energy Project is a prime example of how we are integrating our assets. I'll update you on how we are using our resources, infrastructure and expertise to deliver reliable, low-cost LNG supply. And this all translates into value for our shareholders.
I will also touch on how Woodside is solving complex problems and innovating to enable world-class operations. As Meg mentioned, Woodside started in Australia, and the business here continues to provide a strong foundation for our company. Our Australian portfolio of LNG, gas and oil assets has provided decades of reliable supply to Asia and delivered almost 140 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2024. We are Australia's leading energy company with an operating base anchored by Pluto LNG and the North West Shelf Project in Western Australia.
These remarkable assets continue to generate the majority of Woodside's Australian revenue today, and we are building on this strong base with business with our Scarborough Energy project set to deliver first LNG cargo in the second half of 2026. It really is very exciting, and I'll talk more about that shortly. But let's discuss our track record of world-class execution, which demonstrates how we maximize performance and we deliver cash-generative assets and how we create opportunities.
We are maximizing the performance from our base business through both operations and strategic portfolio management. We continue to deliver new cash-generating assets such as the Scarborough Energy Project. Additionally, by using our innovation mindset, we are delivering improved safety and efficiency while solving and adapting to complex challenges. Finally, we are creating future opportunities in both new and traditional energy.
Our significant reserve base in Australia gives us not just strength today but confidence for decades to come through security of supply and the flexibility to optimize production across our assets. Our operated LNG facilities are industry leading with reliability of approximately 97%, including Pluto achieving that 100% reliability in our recent third quarter 2025 results. This consistent strong reliability performance maximizes revenue and reduces unit production costs. Maintaining this level of performance enables us to generate reliable cash flow, fund future growth projects and continue investing in the safety, reliability and sustainability of our operations across the business while returning value to our shareholders.
When it comes to maximizing performance from our base business, our core focus is on extracting the most value from every asset and molecule. This approach is deeply ingrained within our business. One of our core optimization processes is an annual produce the value initiative to capture every molecule. This process challenges operating limits, identifies smarter and more efficient ways to boost throughput and energy performance across the full production system from reservoir to export. I'm really proud of our team's capability and commitment to deliver consistent value from our assets.
Now maximizing performance can be achieved in several ways. Firstly, by safely executing brownfield opportunities. This often involves drilling new wells within existing fields to access untapped reserves and enhance overall recovery rates from known resources. Examples include Pluto infills, the Pluto 08 and Xena-3 and the Bass Strait infill wells at Kipper and Turrum.
Secondly, we can maximize performance by unlocking asset potential. This is achieved by safely pushing the technical and operational limits of our existing facilities to attain higher throughput, greater efficiency and improved utilization. A good example of this has been the lower pressure operations at Macedon.
In addition, strategic portfolio optimization, such as assuming operatorship of Bass Strait assets enables us to unlock further brownfield expansion optionality. We also agreed to an asset swap with Chevron, where we will swap our nonoperated interest in Wheatstone for Chevron's interest in the North West Shelf. This will streamline Woodside's Australian portfolio and consolidate our focus on operated LNG assets.
The third way we maximize performance is doing what we are known for, delivering operational excellence. We apply data-driven performance monitoring. We maintain discipline, and we optimize processes to maximize uptime and sustain high output. This is all underpinned by disciplined cost management. Pluto Train 1 is a great example of consistent optimization and operational excellence. We have increased Pluto Train 1 capacity by around 14% since FID through multiple initiatives such as maximizing compressor performance and improving automated process control. All these elements combine to drive the underlying strength of the Australian business.
Now let me talk in a bit more detail about the North West Shelf Project. This project has made a remarkable contribution to Australian and international energy supply. It's one of the largest LNG projects in the world, and now there is certainty around its ongoing operations, thanks to the recent approval of the North West Shelf extension.
This final environmental approval supports ongoing operations beyond 2030, enabling us to continue processing remaining infill and near-field opportunities from existing North West Shelf reserves and gas from other resource owners. The approval conditions outline modifications required at the Karratha Gas Plant for ongoing operations and for third-party processing. At this stage, we do not expect any material increase in forecast capital expenditure in order to maintain ongoing production at the North West Shelf.
The North West Shelf joint venture is working to secure future supply, ensuring the Karratha Gas Plant continues to deliver value for years to come. Browse is Australia's largest undeveloped gas resource and is the natural backfill for the North West Shelf. The key catalysts for Browse include environmental approval certainty and commercial arrangements for processing at the North West Shelf. We are also working on optimizing the upstream development concept to improve cost and schedule certainty. So whilst work is continuing and we see opportunities for Browse, we need to see more clarity and progress on these various catalysts and it must align with our capital allocation framework.
A great example of our asset maximization efforts is Greater Western Flank 4, which is expected to take final investment decision in the fourth quarter of this year. This 5-well drilling and subsea project will unlock new value from the North West Shelf infrastructure. Greater Western Flank 4 involves the initial development of the Wilcox field, further development of Yodel and Tidepole fields and the development of the Echo Spur. It is expected the life of the North West Shelf will be extended by about 1 year, and it's also expected to deliver superior returns with an internal rate of return exceeding 30% and an estimated payback period of approximately 2 years. Greater Western Flank 4 is expected to commence operations in 2028.
Now turning to our Scarborough Energy Project. Let's begin with a short video of progress on this major new supply project.
[Presentation]
As highlighted in the video, we are making excellent progress on the project. It's been some time since we last discussed the overall development, so I'd like to take a moment to recap. We are developing this 11.5 trillion cubic feet resource through an initial development of 8 wells via our production floating unit. There are not many resources of this size that can be developed through such a small number of wells.
Once operational, Scarborough will deliver gas for decades to come. The onshore development will process 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG through the new Pluto Train 2, plus up to 3 million tonnes per annum through the existing Pluto Train 1. The development will also deliver 225 terajoules per day of new domestic gas.
Scarborough is now 91% complete and on track for first LNG in the second half of 2026. The large resource combined with Pluto Train 2 and the full integration with the other on-site Pluto facilities is set to deliver cash flow of approximately $1.8 billion per year. We have successfully completed sell-downs to high-quality partners and are applying this proven approach to our Louisiana LNG project.
Our next major milestones to watch for include the departure of the floating production unit followed by its installation hookup and commissioning, all targeted for the first half of 2026. Also in the first half of 2026, we will see Pluto Train 1 have a major turnaround to complete the tie-ins for Scarborough and Train 2 projects. We are on track to deliver this project within the $12.5 billion spend target based on 100% project basis.
While we have teams focused on delivering additional value through new assets and resources, we are equally focused on minimizing the expenditure associated with decommissioning. In 2025, we successfully completed a multiyear decommissioning program at Enfield. This is an asset that Woodside has taken from exploration through development and operations to decommissioning.
Assets that have been closed for a number of years are the focus of our other programs. With an average expected spend of $700 million Woodside share across 2026 and 2027, we are focused on reducing our risk across our decommissioning operations by continuing to integrate learnings and improvements while remaining focused on safety, the environment and efficiency.
Now let's pivot to a core element of Woodside's global competitiveness and ability to deliver high margins, which is our commitment to continuous innovation. Our operations by design are technologically advanced and further innovation can provide us with a competitive edge by lowering operating costs, driving efficiencies and improving our emissions performance. Our culture of innovation and our proven track record of results gives us confidence we can capitalize on the significant work we've done to capture the opportunities presented by AI.
Real-time analytics and digital twins can improve uptime, reduce costs and optimize production. For example, they are being used to determine the optimal start-up procedure, maximizing production efficiency across assets like Pluto LNG and the Karratha Gas Plant. We're adopting a deliberate approach to drive company-wide transformation rather than just taking on experimental side projects.
Across our operations, we continually challenge our teams to implement practical solutions aimed at reducing the carbon footprint from established assets. Each asset has a decarbonization plan, and we continue to implement measures to deliver these plans. Our focus is the detection and elimination of fugitive emissions, which are minor unintentional leaks of gas from equipment during normal operations. We recently completed a helicopter-based gas detection and mapping survey and have mounted on-site methane sensors for continuous monitoring of fugitive emissions. This approach improves detection accuracy, facilitates faster rectification, reduces costs and minimizes personnel exposure to risk.
Another great example is our monitoring of performance data. The advanced analytics allow us to determine the optimal power generation mix for peak system operability and energy efficiency. As I just mentioned, we now track live start-ups against real-time performance objectives to help conduct process readiness evaluations. Starting up an LNG plant is one of Woodside's most complex operational activities. By leveraging AI during start-up, we can rapidly capture, standardize and improve operational best practices, driving repeatable and efficient start-ups. This supports our panel operators and contributes to the safety and reliability of our operations.
On site, we have been using 3D printing to produce components, which helps save cost, reduce time and mitigate supply chain risks for obsolete parts. For example, at Shenzi, we use 3D printing to replace obsolete subsea components for control systems. These parts are now fully qualified for field use and available directly through our digital inventory.
We have also used innovation to tackle one of our ongoing challenges, corrosion. Through collaboration with Curtin University, we were able to prove the safety and integrity of the existing well materials at Shenzi, which meant a planned $46 million replacement was not required. We are also in the process of finalizing the build of our Integrated Remote Operations Centre, or IROC. This facility will allow us to operate Pluto and Scarborough remotely from Perth more than 1,500 kilometers away. This is a significant step towards enabling safer and more efficient operations. By locating our control room at headquarters alongside our engineering, technical and marketing expertise, we can enhance decision-making and collaboration.
I will now show a video of progress on IROC before handing over to Daniel Kalms, our EVP and Chief Operating Officer, International. Thank you.
[Presentation]
Thanks, Liz. Good morning, everyone. My name is Daniel Kalms, and I lead our International business from Houston. I've been with Woodside for over 20 years and held various roles across our Australian operations, including as plant manager for Pluto LNG, running our Australian oil business and leading the Scarborough project prior to final investment decision. I've actually been in Houston since 2022 when I moved to lead the merger between Woodside and BHP Petroleum. In my current role, I oversee Woodside's business across the United States, Senegal, Mexico and Canada, but it's a pleasure to be in Sydney with you.
Today, I'll discuss how we're leveraging the execution capability and core skill sets honed in Australia over many years to grow our diversified International business. In particular, we're taking our proven formula for developing world-scale LNG projects and applying that to Louisiana LNG. I'll also outline how we're positioning for longer-term value through capital-efficient options within our portfolio.
Our International business is a major contributor to Woodside's portfolio. It complements the Australian base and diversifies our revenue and risk profile across multiple regions and commodities. Our international base incorporates Shenzi, Atlantis and Mad Dog in the Gulf of America, plus Sangomar in Senegal. We're building on this foundation with growth projects across deepwater oil, LNG and ammonia, and I'll cover that in more detail shortly.
Woodside's Louisiana LNG project, in particular, strengthens our LNG marketing position, adding significant Atlantic supply to our established Pacific supply. This allows us to maximize value and capture opportunities in both major trading basins.
We are maximizing performance of our assets through continued focus on operational excellence and brownfield projects. With Shenzi reliability above 97% and Sangomar reliability above 98%, we are demonstrating delivery. Our workovers, infill well and subsea upgrades boost production efficiency, restore well performance and extend field life. The Argos Southwest Extension is a great example of a brownfield project delivered ahead of schedule.
In the international portfolio, we're advancing large-scale projects using our proven execution model at Beaumont New Ammonia in Texas, the Trion Field offshore Mexico and Louisiana LNG. Finally, we're creating future opportunities and optionality through these growth projects. This includes options that leverage existing infrastructure such as Louisiana LNG Trains 4 and 5, Sangomar Phase 2 and Beaumont New Ammonia Train 2.
Our International base business has scale in the Gulf of America, one of the world's largest and most productive offshore oil basins. It has favorable fiscal terms, stable regulatory framework and extensive infrastructure, making it an attractive region for continued investment. And although our assets in the Gulf of America have been producing since the mid-2000s, the fields still hold remaining 2P reserves of 374 million barrels of oil equivalent, enabling many more years of production.
These assets also demonstrate strong resilience underpinned by safe and reliable operations that deliver lower unit costs, higher returns and robust cash generation. Our industry-leading reliability also contributes to lower oil operations emissions intensity.
The Sangomar field is a key asset in our portfolio. We took FID in 2020 and began oil production in June 2024, demonstrating Woodside's execution capability, delivering the country's first offshore oil project. Our operational performance has been outstanding in terms of both safety and reliability. We've had 0 recordable injuries in the first year of operations, and we've maintained the reliability at greater than 98% through the third quarter of this year. Looking ahead, we're assessing options for a potential Phase 2, which would leverage the existing FPSO and the subsea infrastructure to unlock additional oil resource. Now any decision to move forward will be based on reservoir performance from Phase 1, market conditions, capital allocation priorities, ensuring we continue to deliver value with discipline.
Across our international portfolio, we're delivering a series of high-quality cash-generative projects that will underpin Woodside's growth through the next decade. Highlights include Sangomar's delivery and strong early performance, the near completion of Beaumont New Ammonia, progress at Trion and Louisiana LNG's recent FID. Together, these developments will significantly boost Woodside's production, cash flow and portfolio resilience.
I'll spend some time now describing each of these projects. We are readying for production start-up at Beaumont New Ammonia, which we expect before the end of the year, with first production of lower carbon ammonia targeted in 2026. We'll share a short video of the progress at Beaumont now.
[Presentation]
Beaumont New Ammonia has several advantages for Woodside. Firstly, its strategic location on the Texas Gulf Coast provides access to domestic and export markets, abundant nitrogen and hydrogen feedstock, and proximity to a carbon capture and storage solution. Secondly, our acquisition of Beaumont New Ammonia from OCI, a company with a track record of constructing 8 world-scale greenfield ammonia projects, provides a proven design. Thirdly, the project benefits from the integration of a strong ammonia operations team from OCI. As Meg discussed earlier, we are well positioned to meet the future demand for lower carbon ammonia and take advantage of carbon regulatory changes in the APAC region and the European Union.
Now turning to Trion, an oilfield located approximately 30 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico maritime border in deepwater. Trion is a new growth platform that leverages our expertise in large-scale deepwater developments and supports future optionality. We achieved FID for Trion in 2023, and construction is now more than 40% complete, with first oil production targeted for 2028. The floating production unit is being built in Korea. The floating storage and offloading facility is being built in China, and the subsea infrastructure and flow lines are under construction in Malaysia, the U.S., Europe and Mexico. Drilling of the 24 wells and subsea installation is planned to commence in 2026. This project is another example of our ability to execute high-return projects safely, reliably and efficiently. And we're now going to show you a video of progress at Trion.
[Presentation]
As Meg highlighted earlier, Louisiana LNG is a landmark international growth project, which builds on the LNG expertise we've developed in Australia over several decades. The project expands our LNG position to the Atlantic Basin and extends our ability to meet growing global demand for LNG. We achieved FID for Louisiana LNG in April this year, and like our other growth assets, this project is expected to generate strong returns.
Louisiana LNG is a derisked project leveraging best-in-class contractors, technology and a lump sum engineering, procurement and construction contract. The initial development is 16.5 million tonnes per annum, and it is fully permitted up to 27.6 million tonnes, giving us flexibility for advantaged future expansion. As you can see from the image on the slide and the video that Meg shared, we are rapidly advancing construction at site, now over 19% complete.
Louisiana LNG is a fully integrated project designed to capture value from feed gas sourcing through to customer delivery, executed alongside high-quality partners. In the traditional U.S. LNG model, companies participate in just part of the value chain, purchasing natural gas from suppliers, transporting it to their facility for liquefaction and then selling the LNG to third parties at the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Our approach is different. We participate in every stage of the value chain from gas sourcing and transportation to liquefaction, shipping and portfolio sales to international end customers. This integration not only allows us to capture value at each step but also provides exposure to international gas pricing, which can increase returns.
It starts with an abundant low-cost U.S. gas resource with around 900 trillion cubic feet, which is commercial at below $3 per MMBtu, providing a long-term competitive feedstock position. That gas will be transported predominantly through Line 200 to the plant. Line 200 has multiple network interconnections to the deep U.S. gas market.
We recently announced Williams' entry into the project as an equity partner. Williams is a leader in natural gas infrastructure and will construct and operate Line 200, leveraging its extensive pipeline expertise. We will also use Williams' Sequent organization to manage and optimize daily gas sourcing, transportation and balancing. This ensures a reliable and cost competitive supply of gas for all Louisiana LNG participants.
Now at the heart of the value chain is the 3-train 16.5 million tonne per annum facility, which we will operate. The project is complemented by our expanding shipping fleet and diverse marketing portfolio, which balances long-term contracts with trading flexibility. With over 35 years of customer relationships across Europe and Asia, we are well positioned to capture premium pricing in the key markets. Thanks to low-cost U.S. gas, competitive capital costs and operational excellence, Louisiana LNG is expected to generate strong returns.
At FID, we indicated we expect a return from this project of more than 13% IRR and a 7-year payback period based on Woodside's capital allocation metrics. And by way of comparison to industry norms, to exceed a 12% return, we require a U.S. Gulf Coast netback or an effective price at the U.S. Gulf Coast of 100% of Henry Hub plus $3.40 per MMBtu. At the target markets, 100% Henry Hub plus $4.90 into Europe or $5.80 into Asia yields a 12% return. Louisiana LNG reflects Woodside's integrated strategy, delivering scale, efficiency and resilience through the cycle.
We're progressing Louisiana LNG using the same formula that we successfully advanced the Scarborough project in Australia. At the top of the screen, you can see the key steps we implemented to manage risk and deliver Scarborough and are now repeating at Louisiana. Before reaching FID, we secure some offtake agreements through sales and purchase contracts, providing revenue certainty. We reduce the execution risk by locking in a lump sum EPC price with a trusted partner. We also further derisk and optimize capital by bringing in high-quality equity partners as demonstrated by our recent agreements with Stonepeak and Williams for Louisiana LNG. This disciplined step-by-step approach ensures we deliver LNG projects with confidence, predictability and strong returns.
With that, I'll now pass to Mark, so you can hear more on the value that our commercial and marketing organization adds to our business. Thank you.
Thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Mark Abbotsford, and I lead our commercial, marketing and trading teams as well as our growth activities across mergers and acquisitions, traditional and new energy business development along with exploration. I have more than 20 years of global experience in the energy industry, having joined Woodside in 2002, and it is really exciting to be with you today to talk about our business.
Today, I'll be highlighting the value that our differentiated marketing and trading platform brings to Woodside. It delivers incremental earnings and flexibility to optimize returns and meet our customers' needs. No other company of our scale brings the same strengths in operational reliability, project execution and marketing capability across basins and the value chain. This makes us a partner of choice across the globe and is an enabler on delivering our strategy and value to shareholders.
Daniel and Liz have outlined the exciting growth that is occurring in our business. This also grows our marketing business. In 2024, the strength and flexibility of our portfolio, coupled with active management, delivered over $1 billion of incremental operating revenue across LNG, oil, condensate and pipeline gas.
Our portfolio is purposely diversified across oil, gas and LNG with a range of exposure to global price indices. It is built for resilience and agility to manage risk and capture opportunities as markets shift. Our LNG business adds further flexibilities with cargoes marketed on crude and/or gas-linked contracts. Looking ahead, we are expanding into lower carbon ammonia, creating scalable opportunities that aligns with the needs of our customers and the changing energy mix across the world.
The commercial and marketing organization is also advancing the Woodside strategy, contributing approximately 10% of EBIT over the last 3 years. We are maximizing the performance from our base business by leveraging scale across the Atlantic and Pacific basins along with our shipping position. With a larger and more geographically diverse portfolio, we can build upon that EBIT contribution through greater supply flexibility and optionality complemented by actively managing our offtake and shipping positions.
We manage our portfolio with contracted positions to balance exposure to upside with revenue stability. By strategically layering contracts through market cycles, we can gain valuable insights to proactively manage risk and to capture opportunity when signposts emerge. We also leave a portion of our volumes uncontracted to provide operational flexibility and to capture value from market dislocations. We are creating future opportunities by building global scale and expanding our new energy offerings in a way that complements our base business and meets our customer needs.
Woodside's global marketing portfolio generates value today by leveraging several distinct competitive advantages, including, firstly, reliability, cost advantaged supply with geographic proximity to the premium Asian markets. Secondly, a portfolio marketing strategy that leverages flexibility to generate additional value. Thirdly, deep long-term customer relationships with a proven track record as a reliable supplier. And fourthly, shipping capabilities and positions that allow us to sell directly to those end users. All of our activities are executed within a robust risk management framework.
The LNG market has evolved from a point-to-point market with oil-linked contracts linked to specific sources and destinations to one that is more liquid and flexible. Embracing innovation, we have transitioned our portfolio to a portfolio approach, optimizing LNG volumes across the portfolio to increase efficiency and to better meet our customers' needs. This approach delivers a balanced mix of long, medium and spot sales.
At the same time, we have diversified our pricing across a range of broader indices and price markers to better meet our customers' needs but also to align with the market cycles. The next step in the evolution of our strategy is the addition of an advantaged supply source in North America to better serve Europe and some emerging markets and to allow further optimization between the Pacific and Atlantic basins. Louisiana LNG provides cost competitive supply that will deliver this objective for Woodside.
For end users, Woodside can also provide certainty of product delivered to their facilities. Securing offtake from North America, particularly from unsanctioned projects and inexperienced proponents can prove challenging. These projects face permitting, cost, EPC, schedule and financing challenges, risks which proponents often seek to shift to buyers, many of whom are not well equipped to manage them. As Meg and Daniel have highlighted, Woodside has addressed these risks across Louisiana LNG and our base portfolio. This will enable us to deliver on our promises on price, on timing, on performance when we sign up to sales and purchase agreements. Certainty is a key differentiator offered by Woodside.
An important element of our portfolio is how we proactively construct the price exposure and our contracting levels. LNG's flexibility allows it to respond to short-term energy shortages, and our portfolio lets us capture value during these periods. We deliberately flex our exposure based upon market signals. In recent years, we have intentionally increased our gas hub exposure, which has proved beneficial from 2022 given high energy prices. Even in the first half of this year, this resulted in an additional $3 per MMBtu relative to oil-linked contracts.
A further example of this action is our positioning of our portfolio over the period 2026 to '28, enabled by flexibility in our portfolio. More than 75% of our LNG volumes are already contracted with most oil linked and some gas hub link exposure. This mix provides diversification, portfolio resilience and the ability to capture value from market dislocations and manage risks as commissioning project -- of other projects across the world come online.
Looking ahead, 50% of our LNG volumes from the early 2030s are already contracted. We will continue placing additional volumes into the market and are in active negotiations for further long-term supply. Beyond LNG, the oil in our portfolio provides natural diversification, giving us a further competitive advantage compared to many LNG-focused peers.
Moving to the significant demand for LNG over the near and midterm. Over the last 2 years, we have secured long-term contracts with end users across Asia and Europe for approximately 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, reflecting the increased demand for LNG across these regions. We are continuing to layer new contracts to support our growing supply portfolio. These contracts are with Tier 1 end customers with significant gas and LNG experience in their markets. Their eagerness to contract with Woodside speaks to our credentials and the industry's recognitions of the importance of reliable access to energy that we can provide.
As I mentioned earlier, one of our key competitive advantages is our access to shipping capacity. We currently have 8 long-term ships under charter with 3 new charters scheduled for delivery through to the end of 2026. More will come as we position for Louisiana LNG startup. Controlling these ships allows us to integrate shipping and production and ensures the vessels are available to move volumes when our operations, as Liz described, outperform. This avoids the need to turn down production and protects the value that our teams create.
Our shipping capacity also allows us to capture value from market volatility while maintaining reliable and efficient deliveries to our customers. We can divert ships, adjust cargo sizes and delivery dates and maintain greater control over supply, providing flexibility that is only available once a cargo leaves a berth. As we expand our global operations, these capabilities will become increasingly important. With access to our own shipping, we are well positioned to optimize flows between Asia and Europe as opportunities arise.
I'm often asked for examples of how our marketing team creates value. Today, we have 3 examples that demonstrate how flexibility drives value creation across our portfolio. And let me say there's probably a few more we could share as well.
The first example relates to a period in 2024 when our oil price contracts outperformed gas-linked contracts. During this time, it was beneficial for us to use volume flexibility in our oil-linked contracts to deliver as much volume as we could into these positions.
In the second example, we see the asymmetric skew in gas pricing. When there is an energy shortage, LNG serves as a flexible and mobile solution. During this period, our ability to direct uncommitted volumes to the optimal market gave us the edge to extract further value.
And in the third example, this looks at the price spikes we saw in 2022. As we spoke about a few slides ago, we had already evolving -- we had already been evolving our marketing strategy to a portfolio approach with flexibility. Even ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our intelligence indicated that the market was heading towards a period of tighter supply. By deliberately having uncommitted volumes in the portfolio, we were positioned to generate incremental margins during this period of higher pricing.
I'll now move to cover Louisiana LNG and how this fits within our global marketing portfolio. We have a clearly defined marketing strategy for Louisiana LNG offtake as shown on this slide. As Daniel noted, the foundation project has a capacity of 16.5 million tonnes, and approximately 50% of that will be allocated to Woodside's global trading portfolio. We will market this volume as part of our portfolio, and as I've noted before, over 50% of the volume at the portfolio level is already committed between 2029 to '34, with a portion of uncontracted volumes retained for flexibility.
We are targeting strategic equity partners for 20% to 30% of the project or about 4 million tonnes per annum of capacity. We anticipate that the remaining 4 million tonnes per annum will be sold to third-party buyers. This marketing strategy preserves optionality, manages risks and allows us to capitalize on international pricing, enabling us to further build a diverse customer base.
Finally, shifting to ammonia. As we near the start-up of Beaumont New Ammonia, we see many of our LNG marketing capabilities transferring directly to this market. In the near term, we are targeting a mix of spot, mid- and long-term sales and purchase arrangements across the United States and Europe, primarily targeting existing markets and customers. Whilst the regulatory support for lower carbon ammonia has been slower to develop than we anticipated, we continue to expect strong demand and regulatory support to emerge in line with global decarbonization goals.
Over the longer term, we anticipate that regulations across Europe and the Asia Pacific will support additional agreements for both traditional and lower carbon ammonia. Our ultimate approach will mirror what you have heard me describe for LNG, where we aim to layer contracts with diverse tenures and locations and build flexibility and resilience.
In closing, I would like to reinforce the value of our differentiated marketing and trading platform and what that brings to Woodside. It delivers incremental earnings and provides significant flexibility that enables us to optimize returns and meet our customers' needs. This competitive advantage has been developed over time as we have proactively adapted as the market evolves and positions us well for the new supply from Scarborough and Louisiana LNG as it comes online.
I'll now hand back to Meg for her closing remarks.
Well, thank you, everyone, for your time. I know we've covered a lot of ground today, and I trust you found the presentations useful. You will have seen consistent messages on how we are delivering on our strategy to thrive through the energy transition. At Woodside, we have reliably supplied energy to global markets for decades, building clear competitive advantages along the way. And we have positioned our business to continue delivering value and provide returns to our shareholders.
By 2032, we expect to see sales growing to more than 300 million barrels of oil equivalent and net operating cash flow of approximately USD 9 billion. In both cases, this represents more than 6% compound annual growth rate.
The strength of the underlying operating cash flow and future growth projects provides a pathway to an increase of approximately 50% in dividends from 2024 to 2032. Our confidence and excitement for Woodside's future is founded on our long track record of growing and returning value to shareholders through the cycle. Woodside has a very bright future.
Thank you for your time. We'll have a short break, and we'll be back to answer your questions afterwards.
[Break]
Hi, everybody. Welcome back. So we're going to start the question and answers now. So we've got 2 roving mics in the room. [ Janelle ] is just coming here and [ Sherez ] has got one as well. So my request would be if you have a question, could you please wait for the mic to come through, if you could introduce yourself so that folks online can hear and also ask if you could limit your request to 2 questions. And then if we have time, we can come around again. But I'll open the floor to questions now.
2. Question Answer
Gordon Ramsay, RBC Capital Markets. It's appreciated to hear details from all the management team, Meg. My first question relates to the macro on the LNG markets. You provided us with a slide that showed Wood Mackenzie's view on supply/demand. There are a lot of market observers saying additional supply is going to come on in the next 5 years and create potential oversupply. Even if that's temporary, is that affecting Woodside's way they're tackling the contracting positions, let's say, in the next 5 years in the market, even though we know longer term it looks really good?
Yes. Thanks. Thanks, Gordon, for that question. It's a question we get quite regularly about a lot of projects in construction, a lot of new supply coming online. What does that mean? What's the market's capacity to absorb? A couple of the slides that we put in there was -- were intended to help address those areas of concern. First and foremost, the chart that shows regasification capacity greatly exceeding current supply and even with the build-out of future projects, there is plenty of regasification capacity in the market. We also gave you a bit of a deep dive into places like Southeast Asia and China, where we see significant potential demand growth for LNG.
So we do think the market is very elastic, and there is quite significant capacity for the market to absorb incremental supply coming online. We do think that the time lines that are forecast by many market observers are also overly aggressive, and we would have seen project delays. I think we presented a slide in 2023 that showed project slippages and the start of production being delayed versus what many had forecast. Now Woodside's projects are not in that category, but others are.
But really, the money slide in this is the slide that Mark presented showing what customers are signing up for. So we've done deals, LNG sales agreements with customers where they're starting to take LNG in '26, '27, '28, '29, '30. Again, if those customers thought the market was going to be a wash in LNG, they would not be signing up for long-term offtake agreements. And that's a bit of the factor as well that provides us with protection.
So as Mark said, we have a high percentage of our LNG that is contracted. We have confidence it's going to find a home. A good portion of that is Brent linked, so if you say maybe there's risk of soft gas prices, well, we've got that Brent indexation. But we actually see more upside in the gas markets as the gas price is often very responsive to seasonal impacts. So cold weathers in Asia, cold weathers in Europe caused price spikes, and we want to ensure we're able to take advantage of those. So that's how we think about the macro.
Excellent. And just second question, Sangomar, you expected it. It's just been a terrific project for Woodside, both from an operational reliability viewpoint but also the reservoir side of the field. You've had 2 proven reserve increases. I recall the company was saying June quarter will go into decline. Of course, that was your record quarter. And then in September, you pretty much produced close to nameplate capacity. What's delivering this? Is it just a combination of reliability but also really good reservoir performance? Is it increased recovery factors of individual wells? Or is it field-wide? Why is it performing so well?
Look, Gordon, you've got a subsurface background, so I know you appreciate the fundamentals. The -- when we're developing a new field, we're developing it based on 3D seismic data, and so there's always uncertainty around how exactly will fluid flow through the reservoir, through the subsurface. And the performance has been really strong.
We had a range of possible outcomes when we took the final investment decision. We're within the range. We're probably above the midpoint case that we had. We officially have gone on decline in October, which, again, we'd signaled it was going to be the second half of this year. So we're starting to see a little bit of performance decline and a little bit of water cut increasing but strong reservoir performance. And I'm sure the follow-on question is going to be what does it mean for Phase 2.
Team continues to gather the data, analyze, understand where might there be infill targets. As Daniel signaled, we would be using the existing infrastructure. So it would be drilling wells and tying back to the existing subsea infrastructure, so a reasonably cost-efficient way of capturing those additional barrels. But more work to do before we're ready to start to move that through the gated process.
Dale Koenders from Barrenjoey. Thanks for the update, Meg. Wondering maybe if we could just talk a little bit about the CapEx outlook. When casting mind back to like '22 and '23 strategy days, it was peak CapEx in '23 and then in '24 and now it's to '27. And there's also been a very subtle shift around, I think to paraphrase yourself, Woodside's looking at having opportunity and choice for the first time, which is quite exciting. So what is the success case for you in terms of capital allocation? Should we think around, as gearing rolls off, that we can start to bring some of these other growth opportunities forward and the future for Woodside might be higher growth and outlook than what has been discussed as a base case today?
Look, maybe to frame that, Dale, and it's a good question, so if you look at some of the charts -- and I think Slide 16 is a really impactful chart that shows the production change over the period and the cash flow change over the period. And hopefully, that helps the market and our investors understand the reason we are in the midst of this very significant capital investment program.
We've been blessed at Woodside with high-quality, very large long-life assets like North West Shelf, the Gulf of America assets, Pluto and Bass Strait, but those assets are starting to come into decline. So the investments we've been making in Sangomar and Trion in the oil space, in Scarborough and Louisiana in the LNG space and Beaumont is all about positioning us to be a successful company in the 2030s.
Now we do have -- we are in the midst of a significant CapEx period, and that data is presented on slide -- the CapEx slide. We'll get the number for you in a minute. But it does show us rolling off as we move through the 2020s. And in the table, what Graham indicated is we've included a bit of placeholder spend in 2030 and subsequent years, recognizing we don't know exactly what we will be able to invest in at that point in time. But we do have the opportunity now to be very selective and discerning.
And the project teams that are working for Liz and Daniel now understand that their projects, their opportunities need to compete for capital. So it's not a given that any project is going to proceed. We have great opportunities in terms of brownfield tie-ins. Those are always highly value accretive, high rate of return. But we've got expansion potential in Louisiana, expansion potential in Beaumont, expansion potential in Sangomar. There's a second phase of Scarborough drilling, the final 5 wells. And the teams are going to have to compete for capital. So whilst we don't give you an exact forecast of what projects are moving through, we do know that we will continue to invest in the 2030s just to keep the momentum going and to fight the natural decline that exists in our business.
So Slide 37, I think, is what you're referring to. But just for confirmation, are you saying that Woodside will cap itself at $3 billion longer term?
No, that is not a cap. That is what we've modeled. So as you're thinking about updating your models, that's the number that's in there. We will be looking to sharpen those numbers as time goes by. But it's just to give you a sense that our CapEx isn't going to go to 0 because we do produce from a declining resource, so we need to always continue investing. We know the sustaining CapEx is always a very value-accretive investment, and that's about $1.5 billion of the ongoing spend in the future.
And then if I can follow up with an annoying analyst question, Slide 64, where you talk about a 12% IRR in Louisiana. Footnote #2 talks about that being a pretax, reference to pretax IRR. Could you just maybe explain why the reference to pretax? Is that because the structure with the One Big Beautiful Bill with depreciation...
No, it has nothing to do with that, Dale. So the reason we include those references is to benchmark with other third-party market observers, who will speak to -- who will use a standardized methodology for assessing rate of return. If you look at the footnote closely, you'd see that when we present our investment rate of return, which is over 13%, it includes things like our carbon cost. That is an after-tax number. But it's to give you a sense, if you're benchmarking our project against projects X, Y and Z in the U.S. Gulf Coast, how does it stack up. And I'm sure Graham would be happy to chat with you further at a break if you have more questions.
We have a question in the middle of the room.
Tom Allen from UBS. Just following up some of your initial comments just on the marketing outlook for the LNG portfolio. Your base case free cash flow assumes the Trains 4 and 5 for Louisiana LNG are committed. And then the marketing slides that Mark presented to just noted that currently 50% of the LNG volumes remain uncommitted from 2029. You addressed at the start that view there and Slide 23 points it out that there could be a period of oversupply in LNG markets from '28 to '32. Is there a level of contracting that you would want to see committed in that LNG portfolio before you take the decision on Trains 4 and 5? Just we obviously expect that you are going to continue to fold in more LNG SPAs. I just want to understand, should we be expecting them in the next 12 months?
Look, let me answer that question a little bit differently, Tom. So let me answer the question of what would -- what are we going to do before we get to FID for Trains 4 and 5. So when we acquired Tellurian, we acquired the design that they had put together, which we like. We like the technology. We like the chart technology. We like the modularity of the plants that's been designed. But there are things that we have learned over 35 years of LNG operations that we would like to incorporate in Trains 4 and 5.
So we have a team that's doing a bit of work to assess how do we cost effectively make minor changes to drive performance improvement in those expansion trains. We've got a bit of work to do with Bechtel to get the EPC contract flanged up and priced and ready to go. But importantly, we need to get the sell-downs away.
So delighted to have Stonepeak as our infrastructure investor in the first phase of development. I'm really delighted to bring Williams into the venture with their deep expertise in U.S. onshore gas sourcing and pipeline construction and execution and operational capability. We do want to sell down further equity in the Holdco, and we will want to have a partner or partners lined up for Trains 4 and 5 before we pull the trigger on FID.
In terms of marketing, that has not been a critical path for us. So if you look at Scarborough, we contracted, call it, roughly 50% of production between the domestic gas sales and a couple of LNG contracts. With Louisiana LNG, we did very little LNG contracting upfront because we know the market is very deep and liquid.
But let me invite Mark to add a few comments about how he thinks about the market in the context of the comment you made around what's the market going to be doing in the late '20s and early '30s.
Thanks, Tom, for the question. So maybe just to also just touch upon the earlier question. I mean we have been, as I said in my presentation, quite intentional about the structuring of the portfolio. So from 2022 to '26, we have been doing everything we can to maximize our gas hub exposure, and that has proven to be a sound decision.
In the period '26 to '28-ish, which is when you're seeing new projects come online, commissioning volumes come on, et cetera, as Megan said and as was shown in my presentation, we've taken deliberate actions to contract in that period because there's an argument to say maybe there's less upside in that period, so quite intentional decisions that we can do because of the way we've structured our portfolio.
Then in 2029 plus, we -- when we look at the amount of conversations that we have in play, they're at a multiple of our 8 million tonnes per annum. So we talk about market pundits. Well, my team is actually talking to the end users, and we are seeing a multiple of demand that we could target Louisiana LNG supply for. Now we're not going to hit all of those deals. They're not all going to work for us, but we are seeing strong demand. It gets back to the risks that we are managing at Louisiana LNG.
As Daniel said, we've got cost certainty with $960 per tonne. We've got the right EPC contracted with Bechtel. We've got a high degree of schedule certainty. We've got all the permitting in place. And Woodside is an organization with 36 years of operational experience. We're seen as technically and commercially reliable. So we're actually seeing a lot of interest there.
So the challenge for me and to present to Meg is what is the cream of the crop of those opportunities, but we are not short of opportunity to sell. We will be selective in making sure we bring in the right deals. And you should fully expect over the next year or 2, you're going to see us relatively regularly out there announcing new deals as we layer them into the market. It's a very deliberate strategy that was successful with Scarborough, and it's exactly what we're doing with Louisiana LNG. So watch this space for, I suppose, more things as we layer those contracts into the market.
Thanks, Mark.
Maybe my second question is just on Browse. So that, I note, is not in the mid-case assumptions. And you're very clear in your response to an earlier question on CapEx, is that we get through '27 peak CapEx, and you're certainly not capping growth CapEx at $3 billion going forward. Can you share some color on the key commercial assumptions for planning purposes that Woodside is working to, to take Browse forward? There's still a modest amount of capital being spent on that project but whether it's a cash flow breakeven, cost of supply that you think you need to get to on a competitive basis but a little bit on the planning assumptions.
Sure. Look, nothing has changed with how we think about Browse. It's a high-quality resource, 14.5 Tcf of gas. It's very rich in condensate. So from a value perspective, it's a valuable fluid stream to be able to produce. Our capital allocation framework is unchanged, so our target rate of return for a gas project is 12% with a 7-year payback period. The Browse team understands those targets and is working very hard to ensure that the technical work, the offshore project, the design, the onshore modifications, all of that can deliver the rate of return and payback period that we're expecting.
But critical path for Browse is not within our control. So I'm sure you've seen in our third quarter, we talked about the state of the environmental approvals. Whilst we're very pleased to have North West Shelf life extension approval, there's still multiple approvals required for the Browse offshore development itself at both the WA state level as well as the Commonwealth of Australia level. So that is critical path. That will be pace setting for us. Whilst we are doing work, it is very limited and focused in scope until we have confidence that we will get the environmental certainty that we need to be able to move this opportunity forward.
Meg, it's Henry Meyer from Goldman Sachs. A follow-up on some of the growth projects in Sangomar we've touched on. Slide 87 is useful with the key assumptions there, just noting that Louisiana Train 4 and 5 are included in the mid-case or the base case. Sangomar Phase 2 isn't. Presumably, if Phase 2 is as strong as Phase 1, the returns would probably be stronger than the 13% expected from Louisiana. Are we capped at moving forward with Train 4 and 5? Or if Sangomar Phase 2 is deemed commercial, could that slip earlier in the pipeline and potentially push Train 4 and 5 out? Or are we constrained with this mid-case development scenario?
Yes. Look, I wouldn't say that we're constrained. I think we've got a plan that includes Trains 4 and 5. And we believe that executing back to back to back is the most cost-efficient and execution-efficient way to proceed. When we look at Bechtel's capabilities, what they're able to do is roll from Train 1 to Train 2 to Train 3. And the current project is $960 per tonne. What we're doing, working with our team and with Bechtel, is challenging to ensure that Trains 4 and 5 are equally cost competitive.
Now we don't have the price to EPC yet, so I can't cite a number. But simplistically, you can understand that once you've built them off, you've built the jetty, you've built the tanks, you've done all the civil works that just building simply the next 2 trains and probably 1 tank is a far more cost-efficient proposition than going from a site that is basically a bare site. So that's why Trains 4 and 5 are included.
Sangomar Phase 2, if everything stacks up, we would like to be able to roll that into the hopper. But as we said, we need a bit more time to get confidence on the subsurface, and then we will go into our normal disciplined gating process. It will require procurement of certain long lead equipment, contracting of rigs, contracting of subsea companies to build the trees and the flow lines and get that installed. So it's not impossible for us to progress both of those opportunities in parallel. For purposes of this presentation, it was excluded.
Great. And focusing near term, conscious we don't have guidance for 2026, and there are probably a few moving pieces there with Scarborough startup and Train 1 mods. But hoping we could expand on Slide 84 here. We're assuming that we're still getting the Pluto-KGP interconnected volumes near term. My understanding is that contract's approved at the end of this year. Could you just step through what's required to get the approvals there or the confidence level in continuing to toll through KGP from Pluto and then what sort of impacts you might expect integrating the Train 1 mods next year and if you have a tighter schedule estimate for when Scarborough could start up?
Well, look, we've been pretty clear. We're expecting first LNG cargo from Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 in the second half of next year. So as we get closer, we'll give more narrow -- we'll be able to start narrowing that down for you.
I think we've talked about this before, but as we think about the project execution, we've been doing things in parallel. So we've been building the offshore platform in parallel with drilling, the subsea pipeline. The 430-kilometer pipeline is already installed. Train 2 construction is in parallel. We're going to start to move to a phase where things operate in sequence. So once we start towing the floating production unit from China, we bring it to site. We moore it up. We hook up the risers. We start gas. Gas goes down the pipeline. Then, we warm up the train step by step.
So we start moving into a sequential mode. As we start moving into next year, we'll give you signals as to where we are on that journey. And with time, we'll be able to narrow the window. We do have weather uncertainty. So doing some of the offshore operations, you're constrained by sea states, and some of the activities will happen during cyclone season as well. So there still is a range to the start-up timing, but second half of next year, when we look at low side versus high side, it's in that window.
Now in terms of 2026, we have not put guidance into the presentation. We will have a Pluto major turnaround. So that's a very significant outage for us with our 90% equity position. About 35 days is what we have in the plan. That's to do the normal Pluto Train 1 maintenance, major maintenance activities as well as do some tie-ins for the Train 1 mods and Train 2. As you see on Slide 84, the Train 1 mods are complete in early 2027, and so that's when Scarborough can step up production from simply the 5 million tonnes that's going through Train 2 up to the initial 7 million tonnes. So that's a bit of the picture for how production will evolve over the coming 18 months or so.
Robert Koh from Morgan Stanley. My first question is around the ammonia and urea trading intentions. If I look at Slide 72, it's showing us 5% in that long-distant period, '29 to '35. And in the sales assumptions, you haven't expanded on Beaumont or anything like that. So I'm just wondering if you can give us some color on how that fits into the big trading scenarios.
I'll invite Mark to comment about that.
Thanks, Rob, for the question. So I mean, initially with Beaumont New Ammonia, we'll have 1.1 million tonnes of capacity, as Daniel said during his presentation. 2026, the initial production will be a gray product. So we'll be looking to sell that in the barge market in the U.S. but also into traditional fertilizer explosive markets, predominantly in Europe. So we'd expect around 30% will end up in the United States. Around 70% will be into Europe.
When the ATR starts up and we also have the CCS from the back end of next year, we'll then have the lower carbon product that, again, we're in active discussions. And as Meg highlighted in her presentation, there's multiple government-supported programs, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, that we are actively involved within.
But our initial focus for Beaumont, it's a new -- it's a nascent commodity. Looking back to where the LNG market was 35 years ago, it's really not going to be a trading platform initially. It's going to be more of a marketing platform. It's going to be a little bit more point to point to start with. And what we'll do as that market develops, of course, is we'll look to leverage those marketing skills that we have on the LNG -- or marketing and trading skills we have on LNG to expand that offering. But initially, I think you would expect the Beaumont sales will be relatively simple and straightforward in terms of how we'll be looking to place them into the market. But as markets develop, we'll look to evolve with the markets as well.
Okay. Great. My second question, I'm trying to think of a way to spread the question love, decommissioning. So I think Liz mentioned that you were starting a Bass Strait platform removal campaign for '27. And then you've also got a $9 billion operating cash flow type number out there for, I think it was 2032. Can you give us some color on what kind of numbers we should be thinking about beyond the '27? I think you've given us a '26, '27 average. But just any color you can share beyond there?
Look, thanks for the question, Rob. If we think about the decommissioning activity set, and then I'll get to your question about the numbers, this year has been a big campaign year for us as we've been tackling some legacy assets that have not produced in a very long period of time, so fields like Stybarrow, Griffin and Minerva. We've made good progress on that scope of work, but we have also encountered some surprises and challenges. So the team is doing work now to understand how do we navigate through those unexpected conditions that we found and what the right approach is going to be.
Work is continuing offshore as we speak, continuing with that campaign. Bass Strait is a big scope of work. The platform removal campaign that's scheduled for 2027 is a mammoth effort and planning for that work has been underway for more than 3 years now. And we feel very pleased with the progress that ExxonMobil as operator is making in preparing for and getting ready to execute that campaign.
Beyond that, we have not put guidance out. And we've said in the past that our decommissioning profile is going to be a bit peaky. But certainly, in the near term, '27 is a big year. We've given you the number for the average of '26, '27, about $700 million a year. And in due course, we'll update you with the longer-term forecast.
I think next question at the back.
Mark Samter from Millennium. Sorry, I still can't let a microphone pass me by, so have to ask more questions. I was hoping to ask on Slide 34 and I guess, in relation to how you think about the balance sheet and capital allocation. And correct me if I'm wrong in this, but it looks like in your downside scenario case, yes, you dropped TTF, but you also dropped Henry Hub and should assume a $3.50 spread there. I appreciate we've got different views on LNG markets, but in the scenario that, I guess, the Woodside base case is wrong and we have a period of having to shut in U.S. LNG capacity, that spread goes to effectively 0. We can [ scrabble ] who shuts first. I'm just curious, does the company internally run scenarios where you make no cash margin for a period? Or is it the bear case that you're still making a sizable cash margin at first?
Are you asking with respect to Louisiana specifically?
Yes. I mean I guess there's a bit of Corpus Christi as well, right, but particularly with Louisiana. I'm just curious. To me, it doesn't feel like a real downside stress scenario where you still assume a pretty sizable cash margin. Yes, it doesn't last forever, but we've had periods in history where we've had no cash margin on U.S. LNG.
Yes. Look, let me frame it for you, Mark, because the market has changed. So if you're thinking about 2020, well, 2020 was a doomsday scenario for our industry, incredibly low prices for oil for all of our commodities, but it was short-lived. So even with the economic destruction that happened as governments shut down and society shut down in COVID, it was short-lived. 2021 was a rebound and 2022 was probably one of the best years ever for the sector, again, with some other geopolitical overlays on that.
What we're modeling here is a steady-state profile. None of these cases reflect the actual volatility that happens in the world. And we get the question quite a bit about, well, what happens if TTF drops to 6 and Henry Hub goes to 4. When the U.S. LNG contribution to the global LNG market was 2% or 3% or 4%, yes, U.S. projects would shut in. But the U.S. is growing to be about 30% of global LNG. And you sort of start to think through, well, what happens. So if all of a sudden, you're in a situation where 30% of the supply shuts in, you're very quickly going to get a price correction.
Now we also need to make sure that we are resilient and the cost of supply that we have is cost competitive versus others. And that's the thing that we like about Louisiana. The $960 per tonne, if you look at any FID announcement subsequent to ours this year, it's in the $1,100 to $1,200 per tonne range. So we are positioned very well within the U.S. space, but again, the size of the U.S. LNG market today is one where the dynamic that a lot of people think of from the COVID era is unlikely to happen.
I might just sneak another quick one if I can. And I guess maybe it's a bit of a moot point until things progress more at Browse. But if we go back to when you sanctioned Scarborough 3, Pluto 2, I don't think I'm misquoting that the conclusion was it was cheaper to build a brand-new train at Pluto 2 rather than retrofit the Northwest Shelf to take Scarborough gas. I get there's different complexities about the gas. Obviously, we're many years down the line, and obviously, more trains will be creating [ haulage ]. But when we think about that North West Shelf Extension and obviously, you're going to be now 50% of that cost, do we have a clear picture of what it would cost from the North West Shelf side rather than just the Browse side to allow us to take Browse gas for decades?
Yes. So whenever we talk about Browse economics, it's looking at the totality of the investment, so Browse plus North West Shelf. Liz talked a bit about some of the conditions and the conditions for North West Shelf life extension to continue processing North West Shelf gas itself. Complying with those conditions is not just a material cost.
To be able to process Browse, the team is doing work to understand what exactly would we need to do and what is the best way to position North West Shelf to be able to process that gas. But the economics, whenever we talk about Browse economics, it's the totality. We, of course, look at the upstream economics stand-alone. Then, we look at the return we would get as the processing facility. And then we look at the totality of Woodside dollars. So again, it's -- the team is doing work on that front in a very focused manner, recognizing that critical path is not the technical work critical path is not the execution planning. It's all the environmental approvals.
Yes, Mark Wiseman from Macquarie. Just had a question on Louisiana Train 4 and 5. My understanding is that's not really in consensus forecast in this time frame, so it's a surprise. Could you just outline the financing model that you've modeled in the numbers here? Are you assuming a similar Stonepeak-style scenario? The CapEx for 70%, we have to be in the neighborhood of $6 billion or so.
Yes. Mark, thanks. I'll let Graham comment, but you've described it in the ballpark correctly.
It's in the assumptions page at the back, Mark, and it's very clear. But yes, you described it pretty well. So we would be looking at Holdco taking 30%, so we would end up with the 70% today. And then the liquefaction trains, it would be looked for another 40% sell-down to a Stonepeak-like arrangement. So it's very clearly laid out in the assumptions at the back.
Okay. Great. And on the $9 billion of operating cash flow in 2032 and the 50% increase in [ DIF ] versus 2024, do you have Train 4 and 5 ramped in that 2032 year?
Yes. Yes. So the reason we picked 2032 was 2 reasons: one, to stay consistent with the FID cash flows that we put forward; secondly, it's the first year of Train 4 and 5. So what you get is you get $9 billion in operating free cash flow, and the NPAT calculation for the dividend policy then leads to $3 billion in dividends, which is a 50% uplift on today.
You've got about $1.5 billion in sustaining capital, so that's about $4.5 billion out of that $9 billion. Then, you've got $4.5 billion, which comes back to those opportunity decisions. Is it additional returns to shareholders, which could include buybacks? Is it additional investments? We look at where the business is at. We look at the investment returns. So there's optionality but very focused on discipline and returns.
And just lastly for me, do we conclude that Louisiana Train 4 and 5 rank more highly than Beaumont Train 2, Sangomar, the other competing options?
Yes. So what we have today, the answer is yes, and it's based on clarity of where we are and what we have to do to get there. And we felt it was wise to include in the base case assumptions. We've spoken about Sangomar. There's still a lot of work to do on the reservoir, right? So we don't want to put that in until we actually know that we've got the confidence and the clarity. And then as a part of it going into the base case, it's got to fight. It's got a challenge, right? It's got to work its way through, and that includes shareholder returns.
But I guess just to be really blunt, we do think it's a very attractive opportunity. We think it's the highest ranking opportunity in the portfolio by our brownfield subsea tiebacks. And we've got full control of our destiny.
We've got the permits. We've got a design. We've got the contractor. We've got everything we need. Sell-down is important, but this is fully within our control, whereas some of the other opportunities, Beaumont New Ammonia Train 2, for example, we really need to demonstrate to you, our shareholders, that we've successfully placed all of the production from Train 1. And so that's an internal threshold, and Mark and his team are chasing those volumes hard. But again, Trains 4 and 5, we fully control that decision-making, and the economics are attractive. So it is full speed ahead.
It's Nik Burns here. Just a couple more questions on Louisiana and relating to the proposed further sell-down there. Since you sanctioned the first 3 trains back in April, we've seen, I think it's around 30 million tonnes of U.S. LNG capacity also being sanctioned, and it feels like there's a few more projects still to come. Just wondering how the rapid approval of competing projects has impacted your plans to sell down. And maybe has it changed in any way the type of buyer that you're looking at? We know the 2 buyers today have been infrastructure-type players. Is that what we should expect for the remaining 20% more that type of buyer and potentially leaving Woodside with more LNG to sell via Holdco? Or do you still think that there's LNG traders out there who still have an interest in equity here?
Sure. Well, look, let me say that when we announced the acquisition of Tellurian, we said what we wanted to do was put together a dream team. And we were going to be very disciplined about who we even talked to or invited into potentially partnering with us. We were clear that we could structure the project commercially to appeal to an infrastructure-style investor and delighted that Stonepeak came in and really delighted that they -- we were able to work with them on the accelerated capital contribution to help us in what would otherwise be tight years in '25 and '26.
Williams is absolutely a member of the dream team when you think about U.S. pipeline capability. They may not be known to all Australian investors, but they operate 33,000 miles of pipeline in the U.S., which is 50,000 kilometers. I mean they are a serious U.S. onshore pipeline company and a serious gas player. So if you think about the value chain slide that Daniel talked about, they bring great capability in the front end. We continue to have our capability in the middle part.
But again, the other U.S. projects have not affected desire or interest from partners coming into our project because we offer a differentiated proposal. We offer investors the chance to come in, to deploy their capital, to get attractively priced LNG coming out the back end of the plant to be able to participate in the upside, which is something you won't get if you just sign an FOB contract with another player.
So we've not seen interest wane. And in fact, after announcing the Williams sell-down, I think people are realizing that we've said we're going to sell 20% to 30%. We've sold 10%. There's not a lot of room left on the bench in the dream team. So interest remains high.
Maybe just on that theme, you also often draw parallels between Scarborough and Louisiana. We -- cast our mind back to Scarborough FID. I think at the time, you were targeting a 50% sell-down. You ended up only selling 25.1%. In terms of where the ultimate outcome is here for Woodside in terms of Holdco interest, why stop at 30% sell-down? Why not go to 49% sell-down given the fact that it feels like most of the return is going to be generated from the margin on the LNG sales rather than the ownership of the infrastructure itself? So could you look to push beyond what your current target is?
Yes. And maybe I'll frame it differently. So when we think about it, we said we wanted to sell down 50% and get 50% of the capital paid for by somebody else. So Stonepeak, $6 billion, tick; Williams, $2 billion, tick. So we're moving very successfully in that direction. So we're not chasing more dollars to come in. Our desire is to keep the 8 million tonnes in our portfolio.
We like the LNG exposure. We like the international markets. That's why we've acquired this asset. We like the fact that we'll have a material Atlantic position to complement our Pacific position. So it's about reducing our CapEx to about 50%.
It's probably worth talking about Scarborough. So when we took FID, we were a much different company. So that was before the merger with BHP Petroleum, which doubled the size of the then Woodside, strengthened the balance sheet tremendously because that business came across with no debt and gave us a lot more flexibility to say, actually, we want to hang on to our crown jewel.
You don't get Scarborough kind of assets very often in life. And so having 75%, yes, it means a bit more capital upfront, but it means 75% of that revenue for the next 20 or 30 years. So that's why we're holding that high equity position in Scarborough. And it, in some ways, mirrors what was done with Pluto, where we took FID with 90%. Okay. It was risky at the time, but it's been paying our bills for the last 12 years.
We've just about reached time. So I know there was one more question. If we can squeeze in really quickly, that would be great.
Just maybe one for Daniel. You talked about Louisiana economics as each segment of the value chain. Can you talk about more the opportunity at those layers and then how you might be, given Williams has got such a significant position in the U.S., how you might be value sharing with that business going forward? And then just a quick follow-up maybe. You've talked about a $3 billion minimum spend in sort of 2030. Would you offer sort of an upper range so we can think about an envelope of CapEx spend rather than just a minimum? Sorry, it was Baden Moore from CITIC CLSA.
Thanks, Baden. So we present that value chain to highlight that we talk very simplistically about U.S. LNGs buying Henry Hub and then delivering to a customer. Really, what you're doing in the U.S. is there's like 6 major basins, each with their own price and then a huge network of pipelines. So you're really sourcing gas at Waha or Carthage or KGP. There's all these different points, all with different prices. The advantage of someone like Sequent, Williams company, is they're already in the market in all of these nodes. What you want them to do is secure the most cost competitive gas. That was the point I made, and then combine that with the most cost competitive transportation all the way to Gillis.
Gillis is where our Line 200 is. So Williams and Sequent are bringing a competitive and established business to deliver cost competitive gas to Gillis. You might think of it in terms of Henry Hub. We think of it in terms of how competitive relative to Henry Hub, using all of their platforms and access in that market. So Henry Hub is a simple thing for you to model. Our team is out there looking for less than Henry Hub delivered to Gillis through the liquefaction train. It's about us doing what we always do, debottlenecking, reliability, managing our operating costs. That's that part of the value chain where you increase value.
We've got a shipping portfolio. Mark gave a whole bunch of examples about if you control the shipping, do you speed up your ships, do you divert your ships. The simple model that people have got in mind about the U.S. is that someone just buys gas, and it could be actually very close to their plant, liquefy it and they sell it to someone at the U.S. Gulf Coast. You are missing out on all these parts of the value chain where you can extract more value if you have the right partners. And that is one of the things that Williams is adding, the network, the pipelines and sourcing all the gas. And of course, you know that we do the bits that are on the end of the chain. So what we need to do is ask the teams to look at every part of the value chain and extract the maximum value. And it's more than just saying Henry Hub plus a constant.
Thanks, Daniel. Look, to the question about the forward capital outlook, one of the things we wanted to do was to help our investors understand that whilst we may not have precision over what our future spend is going to look like, we do expect that it will be in that $3 billion per annum range. But obviously, as individual opportunities come through the hopper, we will make decisions based on our ability to fund, how it fits within the capital management framework and how it fits our capital allocation targets.
So each individual opportunity needs to be assessed. It needs to compete. But one of the, I think, great changes that we have with Woodside today is we now have choice. So whereas in the past, we would have perhaps talked about we have Project X or Project Y, we now have a whole hopper of choices. So it's good. It's good. It ensures that the teams are now competing and ensuring that we get the best work with every possible investment opportunity. It's not exactly ever going to be that number. It's going to be up and down. But hopefully, that will help everybody understand, as you build your model for the long term, what our ongoing CapEx spend might look like.
Well, look, thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I really appreciate your interest in Woodside. I do think what we've laid out for you is a tremendously exciting future for the company. I'll remind you of a few dates. So our fourth quarter report for this year will be released on the 28th of January 2026, and our annual report for 2025 will be released on the 24th of February. We will also plan to host a sustainability briefing early in 2026, similar to the briefing we provided earlier this year, and we look forward to seeing all of you at those upcoming events. Thank you very much.
Financial data from Woodside Energy Group
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Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
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Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Dec '25 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 18,518 18,518 |
1%
1%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 12,049 12,049 |
13%
13%
65%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 6,469 6,469 |
20%
20%
35%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 687 687 |
8%
8%
4%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | 255 255 |
44%
44%
1%
|
|
| EBITDA | 6,044 6,044 |
11%
11%
33%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 288 288 |
15%
15%
2%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 5,756 5,756 |
11%
11%
31%
|
|
| Net Profit | 3,876 3,876 |
24%
24%
21%
|
|
In millions AUD.
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Woodside Energy Group Stock News
Company Profile
Woodside Energy Group Ltd. engages in the exploration, evaluation, development, and production of hydrocarbon and oil and gas properties. It operates through the following segments: North West Shelf, Pluto, Australia Oil, Wheatstone, Development, and Others. The North West Shelf segment produces liquefied natural gas, pipeline natural gas, condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and crude oil from the North West Shelf ventures. The Pluto segment develops liquefied natural gas in assigned permit areas. The Australia Oil segment is involved in the exploration, evaluation, development, production and sale of crude oil in assigned permit areas. The Wheatstone segment is involved in the exploration, evaluation, and development of liquefied natural gas, pipeline natural gas, and condensate. The Development segment includes the exploration of gas resources in Scarborough, Sangomar, and other project areas. The Other segment is composed of the activities undertaken by exploration, international and Sunrise Business Units. The company was founded on July 26, 1954 and is headquartered in Perth, Australia.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | Australia |
| CEO | Ms. O'Neill |
| Employees | 4,693 |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Website | www.woodside.com.au |


