Woodside Energy Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Liz Westcott outlines the key challenges and opportunities ahead for Woodside and the broader sector, six months into leading Australia’s largest oil and gas company.
Welcome Liz, can you tell us about your priorities for Woodside, and what you see as the biggest opportunities for the company over the next few years?
Since becoming Woodside's CEO in March, I have been focused on three priorities: operational excellence, disciplined execution and sustained value creation. We are delivering on these commitments. Our strong base business and financial strength continue to generate returns for our shareholders today, while disciplined delivery of our major growth projects is positioning Woodside to become a leading global LNG powerhouse.
The next major milestone is fast approaching, with the Scarborough Energy Project in Western Australia on track for first LNG cargo before the end of this year. Looking further ahead, the Trion deepwater oil project in the Gulf of Mexico is more than 64% complete, and remains on schedule for first production in 2028.
But it’s Louisiana LNG that is a gamechanger for Woodside, with the foundation project set to add 16.5 million mt/year of LNG in the Atlantic Basin. The project is now more than 28% complete and on schedule for first LNG in 2029. Together, these projects underpin Woodside’s long-term growth strategy, strengthening our position as a globally significant LNG supplier while continuing to create value for shareholders.
You started your career with ExxonMobil working on the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture. What does Woodside taking over operatorship of the GBJV mean for the future of the basin, and what opportunities do you see to extend its life and maximise its value to Victoria and Australia?
We are really excited to have returned as an operator to Victoria, which is where the Woodside story began. The Gippsland Basin assets have supplied gas exclusively to Australian homes and industry for decades and play a key role in the east coast’s energy security and economic prosperity.
As operator, Woodside is building on the strong foundation established by Esso, applying our operating systems, governance and technical capability to support the next phase of the assets’ lifecycle, including ongoing production and planning for late-life asset management and decommissioning.
We are continuing to assess development opportunities within the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture, and have identified prospects that, leveraging existing infrastructure, have the potential to deliver up to 200 petajoules of additional gas supply to the east coast market with the right framework and policy settings in place.
Woodside’s North West Shelf project has been a major contributor to Western Australia and the national economy for decades. What would an extension of the project mean for WA and Australia, particularly in terms of jobs, investment, energy security and economic contribution?
The North West Shelf Project has been providing domestic gas to Western Australia since 1984 and exporting LNG to our regional trading partners since 1989. Since it began operating, the North West Shelf Project has paid more than A$42 billion in federal royalties and excise, supported thousands of Australian jobs, and contributed well over A$300 million to communities in the Pilbara through social investment initiatives and infrastructure support.
It has supplied more than 6,000 petajoules of domestic gas, powering homes and industry in Western Australia, and helped support energy security and national security by supplying gas to the Asia Pacific region.
The North West Shelf Project Extension will enable existing undeveloped gas resources, like Woodside’s Browse fields, to be developed without the need to construct new processing facilities. That new supply will underpin energy security in Western Australia and the region, at the same time generating ongoing tax revenue, employment and community contributions.
What is your view of the proposed national domestic gas reservation scheme?
Woodside is a major contributor of gas for Australian homes and industries. Our domestic gas market share is around 20% on both the west and east coasts of Australia.
We take our obligations to contribute to Australia’s energy security seriously and support the introduction of an appropriately constructed and market-oriented domestic gas reservation scheme.
Australia needs new gas supply to protect jobs, support industry and provide energy security.
Western Australia has a domestic gas reservation scheme in place which has provided policy stability for more than 20 years. First and foremost, any national framework should complement, rather than duplicate, Western Australia’s existing reservation policy.
The Federal government’s exposure draft includes a number of constructive changes, including calibrating domestic supply obligations more closely to market needs and recognising the distinct characteristics of Australia's separate gas markets.
But we have concerns with the framework as currently constructed, including: a “must supply” obligation that risks crowding out domestic-only producers and reducing incentives for new supply; the significant degree of ministerial discretion – in some cases requiring the involvement of multiple ministers, increasing complexity and reducing predictability; and the potential duplication across Commonwealth and State compliance and reporting requirements, particularly for Western Australian exporters.
Above all, the national scheme needs to incentivise investment in new supply. A scheme that results in investment uncertainty, and consequential impacts to future supply, could drive prices higher in the longer term.
Australia is competing globally for investment in new energy supply. How can we strengthen our international competitiveness and what opportunity does this present?
Capital flows to countries with stable, predictable and competitive policy settings. Without them we risk missing out on the long-term investment required across Australia's energy system - which will support jobs, generate tax revenues and underpin our national prosperity. That’s also why clarity on Australia’s national domestic gas reservation scheme is so important, both to local producers and the customers who rely on our supplies both here and in the Asian region.
Policy frameworks should support investment confidence, energy security, affordability and Australia's long-term emissions reduction objectives. If we can get the settings right, industry will be well positioned to play its part by committing to the multi-billion dollar, multi-decade investments like Woodside’s Browse to North West Shelf project.