Woodside Energy flags $1.5bn of one-off charges

Woodside Energy Group flagged $1.5bn of exceptional charges on Thursday, the bulk of which relate to its Shenzi oil and gas field.

The Australian oil and gas firm, which is also listed in London, acquired the deep-water field off the Gulf of Mexico when it bought BHP Group’s petroleum assets in 2022.

Shenzi represented around 5% of Woodside’s production last year.

Woodside said $1.2bn of the impairments related to the asset. "This is primarily related to goodwill and a portion of the purchase price assigned to Shenzi on completion of the merger with BHP Petroleum," it noted.

The impairments, which also include a $300m charge on its Wheatstone project in Western Australia, largely related to short-term pricing, would be taken in the 2023 full-year financial results.

Shares in Woodside closed down 3% in Australia overnight.

Woodside also provided an update on reserves, noting that it had added 266m barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of proved oil and gas reserves in 2023 and 318m boe of proved probable reserves.

Meg O’Neill, chief executive, said: "Woodside has delivered strong operational performance over the past 12 months.

"We achieved record production in 2023 while progressing a world-class funnel of development opportunities which have us well position for growth and returns.

"Our success in integrating the strategic merger with BHP Petroleum, combined with our ability to advance major projects and improve performance has delivered a high quality resource base that enjoys top quartile reserves life."

Woodside will publish full-year results on 27 February.

Earlier this month, Woodside scrapped a potential $52bn tie-up with smaller rival Santos.