Project sanction also targeted in 2025 for latest NWS project on home turf
Australia’s Woodside Energy is continuing to streamline its business to focus on core and high value assets, as it “progresses at pace” towards the final investment decision for the initial three-train scheme at its Louisiana LNG liquefied natural gas export project in the US, chief executive Meg O’Neill said on Wednesday.
“With significant growth in the pipeline, we continue to streamline our business to focus on core and high-value assets,” said O’Neill.
“Our agreement to divest the Greater Angostura assets in Trinidad and Tobago for US$206 million underscores our disciplined approach to portfolio management and optimisation. We applied the same discipline in declining to progress Namibian Petroleum Exploration Licence 87, exiting H2TAS and reassessing the H2OK project.”
Earlier this month, Woodside announced the US$5.7 billion sale of a 40% interest in Louisiana LNG to global investment firm Stonepeak and lined up Germany’s Uniper as a long-term foundation customer for the greenfield liquefaction project.
“We are pleased with the strong level of interest from potential strategic partners and are advancing discussions targeting further equity sell-down in Louisiana LNG,” she added
O’Neill explained that Louisiana LNG has a Foreign-Trade Zone, enabling the project to defer payment of tariffs until completion of each liquefaction train.
“We are assessing the potential impacts of recent tariff announcements and potential further trade measures on Louisiana LNG. Around 25% of Louisiana LNG’s estimated capital expenditure is equipment and materials, approximately half of which is currently expected to be sourced from the US,” added O’Neill.
Ahead of project sanction, work at Louisiana LNG in the first quarter continued under a limited notice to proceed with engineering, procurement and construction contractor Bechtel.
Woodside noted that site works included dry excavation, clearing, area drainage improvements, mud mat installation, sheet piling and concrete work. In tandem, all high value orders and major purchase orders (equipment and bulk materials) for trains 1 and 2 have been released and purchase orders for Train 3 have also been placed.
Australian assets
On home turf, the operator later this year is planning to also take a final investment decision on the Greater Western Flank Phase 4 project at its North West Shelf project, which achieved LNG reliability of 96.5% in the first quarter of 2025.
Woodside in the first quarter received approvals from its NWS partners for long lead items for the Greater Western Flank Phase 4 project, a five-well subsea tie-back to existing NWS offshore facilities.
This project will support the delivery of domestic gas into the Western Australia market during a forecasted shortfall in supply post-2028.
Against that backdrop, Woodside is continuing work to permanently retire NWS LNG Train 2 following cessation of production in the fourth quarter last year, with retirement work scopes being undertaken in a phased manner.
Also in Australia, Woodside is still targeting the maiden LNG cargo from its Scarborough energy project — Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 — in the second half of 2026.
The Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 Project — excluding the Pluto Train 1 modifications — was 82% complete at the end of the first quarter this year.
US contractor McDermott is the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning contractor for the Scarborough floater.
The topsides were fabricated at Qingdao McDermott Wuchuan Offshore Engineering (QMW), McDermott’s joint venture with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), while the hull and living quarters were built by COSCO under a subcontract.
In the three months ended 31 March, the Scarborough FPU hull exited its second dry dock, and the topsides were loaded onto a transport barge in readiness for integration activities.
Offshore, installation of the subsea production risers commenced, pre-installation of the FPU mooring chains was completed and batch drilling of the intermediate sections of the development wells concluded, said Woodside.
First quarter activities at the Pluto Train 2 site focused on piping and cable installation and preparations for pre-commissioning activities, while site works for Pluto Train 1 modifications continued and construction activity at the modules yard ramped up.
However, Pluto LNG’s reliability was only 89.9% during the first quarter due to the impact of three unplanned train outages, even though these were rectified within days of each event.
“Facility performance continues to be proactively monitored to minimise the risk of future unplanned outages,” added the operator.
Looking further into the future, Woodside in the first quarter continued work on the Browse to NWS Project to optimise the development concept, advance key regulatory approvals and progress commercial discussions to process Browse volumes through the Karratha Gas Plant in Western Australia.
The operator also progressed pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) engineering work — which commenced during the second half of 2023 — and subsurface studies to mature the technical and commercial definition of the development concept for its proposed Calypso ultra-deepwater project offshore Trinidad & Tobago alongside partner BP.
However, Woodside last month agreed to divest its Greater Angostura assets in Trinidad & Tobago to Perenco. The transaction includes Woodside’s interest in the shallow-water Angostura and Ruby offshore oil and gas fields, associated production facilities and onshore terminal.
Higher production boosts Q1 revenues
The company posted first quarter 2025 revenues of US$3.315 billion, up 13% year-on-year, as production increased 9% to 49.1 million barrels of oil equivalent versus one year prior.
Woodside’s output was boosted by volumes from its Sangomar oilfield offshore Senegal, which achieved “exceptional” plateau performance of 99,000 barrels per day of oil gross at 97.6% reliability in the three months ended 31 March, said Woodside.
During then first quarter, “based on a positive response” observed in Sangomar’s S400 oil producers from water injection, contingent resources were migrated to developed reserves — adding a net 7.1 million barrels to proven reserves and a net 16.1 million barrels to proven plus probable reserves.
As a result, Woodside expects Sangomar’s depreciation, depletion and amortisation (DD&A) rate for 2025 to decrease by 5% to 10% from its 2024 DD&A rate of approximately US$56 per barrel of oil equivalent.
Cargoes from the offshore oilfield project were delivered to China, Europe, US and Senegal’s domestic refiner in the first quarter.
