By Himanshi Akhand and Louis Jackson
(Reuters) – Australia’s Woodside Energy reported a 14 percent drop in first-half profit on Tuesday due to lower oil prices, but the result and its dividend beat market expectations, sending its shares up 4 percent.
Chief executive Meg O’Neill said there was significant interest in the proposed sale of shares in Driftwood, a US LNG export project that Woodside is set to own when it buys US developer Tellurian for $1.2 billion, including debt.
“We are looking for companies that can provide support in terms of upstream gas supply,” she said, as well as companies interested in purchasing and even elements of the terminal’s infrastructure.
O’Neill added that Woodside aims to secure firm commitments for share sales, if no deals are signed, before it makes a final investment decision in the first quarter of 2025.
Woodside also said it would decommission one of the five LNG trains at the Karratha gas plant between late 2024 and mid-2025 as production from the ageing field declines.
The company reported core net income after tax of $1.63 billion for the period ended June 30, comfortably beating Visible Alpha’s consensus estimate of $1.38 billion.
The company’s shares rose to close up 3.9%.
The decline in earnings was mainly due to lower oil prices, with Woodside’s average realized price falling to $63 per barrel of oil equivalent compared to $74 in the same period last year.
Woodside also declared an interim dividend of 69 cents per share, down from 80 cents a year earlier, representing 80% of underlying net profit after tax.
The company had set a dividend payout range of 50% to 80%, and the market was expecting a dividend of 55 cents.