PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas major Woodside on Thursday warned shareholders of a A$1-billion to A$1.2-billion impairment for 2015, following an asset value review and taking into account the lower short- and long-term oil price.
Despite the downturn in oil prices, Woodside achieved its second-highest production result on record, producing 92.2-million barrels of oil equivalent in the year ended December 2015.
During the three months to December, Woodside produced 24.9-million barrels of oil equivalent, compared with the 25.3-million barrels produced in the previous quarter.
Sales for the fourth quarter ended December reached 25.2-million, which was ahead of the 24.1-million achieved in the third quarter, generating revenues of A$1.1-billion, a 1.7% increase on the September quarter.
“We continue to relentlessly focus on delivering the fundamentals of our business and are now seeing the benefits of our productivity programmes flow through to our results. The recent significant fall in oil and gas prices has highlighted the quality of our low-cost production and approach to balance sheet risk management,” said Woodside CEO Peter Coleman.
Compared with the previous corresponding period, Woodside’s production volumes for the fourth quarter increased by 6.4%, predominantly owing to oil production from the Balnaves oil asset, which started production in April 2015, and higher liquefied natural gas and condensate volumes from the Pluto operation, owing to higher plant availability.
Sales revenues also increased by 37.3% in the December quarter, compared with the previous corresponding period.