Woodside's Sales Slump as Coronavirus Cripples Demand

Aaron Sheldrick
Thursday, April 16, 2020

Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd said on Thursday that its sales slumped more than 20% in the first quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic and draconian measures to curb the outbreak crippled fuel demand globally.

Oil and gas producers have been among the worst hit as the outbreak has forced governments to impose lockdowns and social-distancing rules, confining people to their homes, upending businesses and ravaging global economic growth.

Crude prices on both sides of the Atlantic recently crashed to levels unseen in about 18 years as travel demand dwindled in a market flush with supplies. Woodside has said it would cut costs and investment to weather the crisis, as well as cautioned its key Sangomar oil project may see spending cuts.

"We have battened down the hatches and we will come out of this strong," Woodside Chief Financial Officer Sherry Duhe told Reuters in a phone interview. "But it certainly has been challenging and unprecedented."

The company's sales revenue for the quarter ended March 31 fell to $1.08 billion, from $1.36 billion a year earlier.

Its average sales prices for products was $45 per barrel of oil equivalent, more than $10 weaker than a year ago.

Production came in at 24.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), up from 21.7 million boe a year earlier, but slightly below a UBS estimate of 24.5 million boe.

Woodside's projects are operating normally and the company has "fully transitioned into the new abnormal of our coronavirus operating ratio in our assets and offices," Duhe said.

The company has, however, shelved decisions on new projects. Last month, it slashed its planned spending for fiscal 2020 by about $2 billion and deferred go-ahead decisions on key gas projects to stave off the impact from the pandemic.

SANGOMAR

While Woodside has pushed ahead with work on its major growth project, the $4.2 billion Sangomar development off Senegal, it has been facing issues with the supply of well-head parts due to the virus.

Well-head parts for Sangomar are manufactured in northern Italy, one of the regions worst hit by the coronavirus.

"I'm not in a position to comment on northern Italy specifically, other than to re-emphasize we are working with all our contractors," Duhe said, adding the project may see spending cuts this year due to disruptions.

"We are in execution and we are not stopping but it is slowing down," Duhe said.

Woodside shares were down about 1% by around 0500 GMT.

Australia's biggest gas producer has halved its forecast spending for this year to $2.4 billion.

(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Additional reporting by Shreya Mariam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Himani Sarkar)

Categories: Finance Energy Industry News Activity FPSO Production Australia/NZ Floation Production

Related Stories

Petrovietnam, Petronas Extend PSC for Offshore Block

Woodside to Shed Some Trinidad and Tobago Assets for $206M

China Unveils Plans for New Offshore Wind Farms to Tackle Carbon Emissions

Eco Wave Finds Partner for Wave Energy Project in India

Six New Gas Wells in Line for BP’s Shah Deniz Field in Caspian Sea

ONGC and BP Sign Deal to Boost Production at India's Largest Offshore Oil Field

McDermott Concludes Work at PTTEP’s Kikeh Gas Field Off Malaysia

Santos Hires Weststar-GAP for Timor-Leste Offshore Helicopter Services

China's CNOOC Aims for Record Oil and Gas Production in 2025

Flare Gas Recovery Meets the Future

Current News

MODEC, Sumitomo Partner Up for Delivery of Gato do Mato FPSO

Chuditch Gas Field Up for Summer Drilling Ops as Sunda Reshapes Ownership Structure

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

Hanwha Drilling’s Tidal Action Drillship En Route to Petrobras’ Roncador Field

China's ENN, Zhenhua Oil Ink LNG Supply Deals with ADNOC

MODEC Wins ExxonMobil Guyana’s Hammerhead FPSO Contract

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Indonesia Awards Oil and Gas Blocks to Boost Reserves

Sapura Energy Nets $22.6M in Offshore Support Vessel Contracts

CNOOC Puts Into Production New Oil Field in South China Sea

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com