Woodside Energy Group Ltd
ACN 004 898 962
Mia Yellagonga 11 Mount Street
Perth WA 6000 Australia
T +61 8 9348 4000
www.woodside.com
ASX: WDS NYSE: WDS LSE:
WDS
Announcement
Wednesday, 24 April 2024
AGM
ADDRESS BY CHAIR RICHARD GOYDER AND CEO MEG O'NEILL
In accordance with the Listing
Rules, please see attached announcement relating to the above, for
release to the market.
In addition, the AGM presentation
has been submitted to the FCA National Storage Mechanism and will
shortly be available for inspection at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism
This announcement was approved and authorised for release by
Woodside's Disclosure Committee.
Forward looking statements
Disclaimer and important notice
This announcement may contain
forward-looking statements with respect to Woodside's business and
operations, market conditions, results of operations and financial
condition which reflect Woodside's views held as at the date of
this announcement. All statements, other than statements of
historical or present facts, are forward-looking statements and
generally may be identified by the use of forward- looking words
such as 'guidance', 'foresee', 'likely', 'potential', 'anticipate',
'believe', 'aim', 'estimate', 'expect', 'intend', 'may', 'target',
'plan', 'forecast', 'project', 'schedule', 'will', 'should', 'seek'
and other similar words or expressions.
Forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to inherent known
and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors,
many of which are beyond the control of Woodside, its related
bodies corporate and their respective officers, directors,
employees, advisers or representatives. Details of the key risks
relating to Woodside and its business can be found in the "Risk"
sections of Woodside's most recent Annual Report released to the
Australian Securities Exchange, Woodside's Climate Transition
Action Plan and 2023 Progress Report, and in Woodside's filings
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including
Woodside's Annual Report on Form 20-F. You should review and have
regard to these risks when considering the information contained in
this announcement.
Investors are strongly cautioned not
to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Actual
results or performance may vary materially from those expressed in,
or implied by,
any forward-looking statements.
Woodside Energy
Group Ltd 2024 Annual General Meeting Wednesday, 24 April
2024
Chair Richard Goyder
Good morning everyone, and welcome to Woodside's 2024
Annual General Meeting. I'm Richard Goyder, Woodside's Chair, and
on behalf of our company I'd like to thank everyone attending,
whether in person or online.
We sincerely appreciate your interest in our
business.
If you're here in the room, please familiarise
yourself with the evacuation procedures on the screen, which would
apply in the event of an emergency.
I am informed that a quorum is present and formally
declare the meeting open.
Today is a historic day for Woodside. It is our
70th AGM, and almost the 30th since we moved our company
headquarters to Perth in 1996.
Our history here is proud, but it is very short when
compared to the many thousands of years the Whadjuk people of the
Noongar nation have lived here and cared for this country. I would
like to thank them for this enduring contribution and I pay my
respects to their Elders past and present.
I also recognise the many traditional custodians of
the areas where Woodside operates, in particular, the Ngarda-Ngarli
people as the collective custodians of Murujuga, where we have
worked for more than 40 years.
24 April
2024
2024 Annual General Meeting
1
Australia remains on a journey towards reconciliation
and at Woodside our support for this vital goal is unwavering.
Today's event is a valuable opportunity for our Board
and company leadership to hear directly from our shareholders, so I
ask that you keep questions brief and avoid repeating issues that
have already been covered. Could you please ask no more than two
questions at a time to give as many shareholders as possible an
opportunity to be heard. I remind shareholders that questions must
relate to the item of business under consideration, and as in
previous years, no speeches, please.
There will be an opportunity for questions during
formal business, so if you're a shareholder joining online please
start submitting any questions now. You can do this using the same
platform you're watching the webcast on.
There are instructions on the slide and I'll run
through them now: To submit a question, you need to tap the
messaging tab, type your question in the chat box at the top of the
screen and hit send. Confirmation your message has been received
will then appear.
Shareholders who wish to ask questions from the floor
will need to register the questions at the question registration
desk at the back of the meeting room. You will then be called to
ask your question at the microphone stand at the back of the room
at the appropriate time. This year we have two microphone stands
for shareholders to use to ask questions. This makes it easier for
shareholders participating online as well as me and Meg to see you
and hear your question.
If you have not already registered a question you
wish to ask, please go to the question registration desk now and
give your name and a brief description of your question. You may
return to the question registration desk at any time during the
meeting to register further questions.
If you have any mobility issues, please raise your
hand for assistance with your question registration. Staff will then bring a microphone to you for you to ask your question from your seat at the appropriate time.
The process for submitting audio questions online is
on the right-hand side of the slide. To do so you must first click
on the 'Request to speak' button at the bottom of the broadcast
window, enter the requested details, click 'Submit Request', and
follow the audio prompts to connect. You will continue to hear the
meeting while you wait to ask your question.
I'm joined on stage this morning by our Chief
Executive Officer and Managing Director, Meg O'Neill, and Company
Secretary, Warren Baillie. Also here with us in Perth are directors
Larry Archibald, Ashok Belani, Arnaud Breuillac, Frank Cooper, Swee
Chen Goh, Angela Minas, Ian Macfarlane, Ann Pickard and Ben
Wyatt.
In January, Frank Cooper and Gene Tilbrook announced
they would be retiring as Directors of Woodside. Gene stepped down
from his position in February and Frank will do so at the end of
today's meeting, at which time Ben Wyatt will take over as the
Chair of Woodside's Audit & Risk Committee. I would like to
thank Frank and Gene for their exceptional service to the Board,
and the contributions they have made to Woodside's success.
I would also like to warmly welcome Ashok to the
Board, following his appointment in January. Ashok brings extensive
experience in new energy, technology and petroleum sector
decarbonisation. He will stand for election as a non-executive
Director at today's meeting.
Nick Henry and Anthony Hodge, representing our
auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, are also present today.
Our Executive Leadership Team along with the Board,
will be available after the meeting to catch up with our
shareholders attending in person over light refreshments.
Voting today will be conducted by poll. Each
shareholder present in person or by proxy has one vote for every
ordinary share owned. Lisa Ahwan, from the company's share registry
Computershare, has agreed to act as Returning Officer for the poll.
I will open the poll now for voting on all items of business, so
that shareholders who aren't able to stay for the full meeting can
still cast their votes on all items of business.
For shareholders attending in person, we are using
electronic keypads instead of paper poll cards. This means we will
be able to share the provisional voting results with you towards
the end of the meeting. Instructions for using the handsets and
submitting your votes on each item are now on the screen, please
take a moment to familiarise yourselves with these.
At the time of registration, shareholders who are
eligible to vote would have been given a white plastic smartcard
and a handset. Proxy holders would also have been given a handset
and a summary of their voting instructions. Following the
discussion on items of business, I will prompt those shareholders
who are physically present today to vote on those items and, at
that time, your handset will activate and voting instructions will
appear on your screen.
If you require assistance now or during the voting,
please simply raise your hand and someone from the Computershare
team will assist you. For shareholders requiring assistance online,
please follow the instructions on the online platform to access
assistance on voting.
Voting will remain open during the discussion of the
items of business. I will let you know when the poll is about to
close. Shortly after the close of the poll, the provisional poll
results will appear on the screen behind me. The final results of
the poll will be announced after the meeting to the Australian
Securities Exchange and will also be available on Woodside's
website.
I am holding open proxies in my capacity as Chair of
the meeting and I will vote all available proxies in favour of each
resolution.
Please remember we report our results in US dollars,
and any reference to dollars this morning will be in US currency
unless stated otherwise.
During today's meeting, we may also make
forward-looking statements about our business and operations.
Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements. Please refer to the cautionary
statement and disclaimer wording included in our ASX announcement
released earlier today and our annual report and other filings with
the ASX, LSE and SEC.
As the opening video highlighted, Woodside is marking
several milestones this year: Our company was founded in the small
Victorian town of Woodside in 1954 and we are celebrating our
70th birthday. We are also marking 40 years of providing
energy to local homes and businesses in Western Australia from the
North West Shelf, and it is 35 years since our first LNG ship
departed for Tokyo Bay, marking the birth of the LNG industry in
Australia. Reflecting on this long history of achievement, I feel
privileged to be Chair of this great Australian company and
tremendously proud of the value we continue to return to our
shareholders and indeed all our stakeholders, our employees,
suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
Before I reflect on our performance in 2023, I'd like
to state very clearly that we are committed to conducting our
business sustainably. This means responding to climate change. And
it means ensuring everyone who works at Woodside goes home safely.
Sadly, our safety performance, including the tragic death of a
colleague at the North Rankin Complex, meant we did not achieve
this in 2023. Please be assured that we are steadfast in our
commitment to learning from this incident. There is nothing more
important to us in 2024 than improving safety.
Looking at our broader performance, 2023 further
established Woodside as a global energy supplier. We delivered
record production from our expanded portfolio and achieved
excellent LNG reliability. Amid normalised oil and gas prices
coming off 2022's record highs we recorded an annual net profit
after tax of US $1.7 billion and an underlying net profit after tax
of US $3.3 billion. Based on this, the Board determined a
fully-franked final dividend of 60 US cents per share, resulting in
a total full-year dividend of 140 US cents per share
fully-franked.
We are committed to returning value to our
shareholders, as well as the communities we operate in and in 2023,
Woodside paid a record A$5 billion to the Australian Government in
tax and royalty payments.
We are delivering these strong returns while also
laying the foundations for future growth. Meg will give more
detailed updates on our major growth projects which are progressing
well. We expect first oil from Sangomar in mid-2024 and Scarborough
is targeting first LNG cargo in 2026. We also took a final
investment decision in June last year to develop the large,
high-quality, Trion resource in Mexico.
We are aiming to reduce our net equity Scope 1 and 2
greenhouse gas emissions 15% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. This is
compared to our 2016 to 2020 gross emissions, with certain
adjustments and we are on track to meet these goals. We have also
launched our Climate Transition Action Plan and announced a new,
complementary, Scope 3 emissions abatement target. For the Board
and
executive leadership of Woodside, we view our
response to climate change not only as a responsibility, but a
great opportunity. Our strategy is to thrive through the energy
transition, for the benefit of our shareholders, our employees, our
communities and the environment.
I would like to thank our shareholders, for investing
and placing trust in Woodside. In particular, may I thank those who
have engaged with us on our climate plans. I believe that all plans
and ideas are improved when they are subject to scrutiny and
constructive feedback, and this has been the case for Woodside over
the past 12 months. In 2023 I held 43 meetings on climate change
with investors and our investor relations team held 70, and since
the beginning of this year I have held more than 40 meetings. We
will continue to engage our shareholders on this important topic
and take action accordingly.
I also recognise that Directors of public companies
are under increasing investor, media and stakeholder scrutiny for
the responsibilities they discharge on behalf of shareholders.
This has certainly been my experience in recent
times, but I can assure you that I have never been more energised
and excited to serve as Chair of Woodside. The complexities of
chairing an energy company as the world strives to decarbonise are
many, but I firmly believe that Woodside's track record during my
time as Chair - delivering strong operational and financial
performance, laying the foundations for future growth, while
continuing to return value to shareholders - speaks to the quality
of our company's current leadership and strategy.
On this note I would like to thank the Board, the
Woodside team, and particularly our Chief Executive Officer, Meg
O'Neill, for their work this year. Meg is inclusive, capable and
highly intelligent. She is the right leader to seize the
opportunities the energy transition brings and work through its
challenges.
In closing, I'd like to share a reflection about this
being Woodside's 70th AGM. What would our first chair,
Percival McKenzie, make of the company Woodside is today? I can't
imagine that in 1954 he could ever have conceived we would have
thousands of employees working in offices and at operations around
the world, or how great our contribution to supplying energy to
households and businesses at home and abroad would be, but I
believe he would be proud that we have maintained the enterprising
Australian spirit of innovation and determination that saw Woodside
established all those years ago.
It is a legacy we intend to build on for many decades
to come.
I'll now hand over to Meg.
Thank you.
CEO and Managing Director Meg
O'Neill
Thank you, Richard and thank you to everyone
attending in person and on-line. It is a great privilege to lead
Woodside during this transformative period for our company.
I am proud to report that we continue to invest and
create value on your behalf while delivering reliable energy to
homes and businesses here in Australia and overseas.
However, when I look back on 2023 I will always think
of our colleague who lost his life while working at our North
Rankin Complex. His death continues to affect many of us, and I
again offer my deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Safety is our number one priority at Woodside and we must improve.
We have commissioned an external review of our safety systems and
this will guide our efforts to improve safety performance.
Our strategy is to thrive through the energy
transition. The heart of this strategy recognises that the world
must respond to the challenge of climate change by changing our
energy system - and we intend to be part of the solution. It is
underpinned by three priorities: providing energy the world needs
today and into the future, creating and returning value, and
conducting our business sustainably - and we are delivering on all
three.
As Richard highlighted, in 2023 we achieved record
full-year production of more than 187 million barrels of oil equivalent. This record demonstrates a clear benefit of our merger with BHP's petroleum business, with
production now more than double pre-merger levels.
Our outstanding result of 98% LNG reliability for our
operated LNG plants at Pluto and North West Shelf contributed to
this record overall production and was achieved while successfully
delivering planned turnarounds.
Operating revenue for 2023 was $14 billion, leading
to an annual reported net profit after tax of $1.7 billion and an
underlying net profit after tax of $3.3 billion. With a full-year
dividend value of 140 cents per share we returned more than $2.6
billion to shareholders, which was 80% of our underlying Net Profit
After Tax. I am tremendously proud that we have delivered value of
this magnitude amid inflationary pressures and lower oil and gas
prices, relative to 2022.
We remain on track to meet our target of reducing our
net equity Scope 1 and 2 emissions 15 per cent below our starting
base by 2025. In 2023 we reduced our net equity emissions to 12.5 %
below our starting base. We achieved this by designing and
operating out emissions and using carbon credits as offsets. We
aspire to achieve net zero equity Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050
or sooner. And we have now completed asset decarbonisation
planning, identifying a potential pathway to achieving this goal,
with a clear emphasis on design-out and operate-out solutions.
A great example of this work is the modifications we
have made to receive power from the proposed Woodside Solar
project. In 2021, we set a Scope 3 investment target aiming to
invest $5 billion in new energy products and lower carbon services
by 2030. At the end of 2023, we had cumulatively spent more than
$335 million towards this target, meaning expenditure was up 135%
compared to the year before.
In February, we announced a new, complementary Scope
3 target to track the potential impact of our new energy products
and lower carbon services in helping customers reduce their
emissions. The new emissions abatement target is to take final
investment decisions on new energy opportunities by 2030, with
total abatement capacity of five million tonnes per annum of CO2
equivalent.
In 2023 we bedded down our transition to a larger,
more global energy company, following the merger with BHP's
petroleum business. We are now working as one team across multiple
locations,
with additional operating assets in the Gulf of
Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago. And we have a range of new energy
opportunities in the United States, complementing our portfolio in
the Asia-Pacific.
We are also making good progress on our key growth
projects Sangomar, Scarborough and Trion. Sangomar, off Senegal,
was 96% complete at the end of the first quarter, with 19 of 23
wells drilled and completed. The floating production storage and
offloading facility has safely arrived in the waters off Senegal.
We are targeting first oil by the middle of this year.
By the end of Q1, our Scarborough Energy Project was
more than 62% complete and on track for first LNG cargo in 2026. A
Scarborough milestone was marked during the quarter with the
arrival on site of the first modules for Pluto Train 2 and at the
end of the quarter, 13 modules were in place. If you visit
Karratha, which I do often, you'll see site works at Pluto Train 2
are well progressed. Key environmental approvals were accepted in
late 2023 and following this our seismic program was successfully
completed. Offshore works including trunkline installation and
drilling of the wells have also commenced.
These milestones could not have been achieved without
meaningful engagements, and support from First Nations groups,
which have been occurring since 2018.
Another key 2023 achievement was our sale and
purchase agreement with LNG Japan, for the sale of a 10% equity
interest in the Scarborough Joint Venture. I'm pleased to report
the transaction is now complete. In February this year we also
signed a sale and purchase agreement with JERA for a 15.1% equity
interest in the Scarborough Joint Venture. The LNG Japan and JERA
deals are strong evidence of market confidence in Scarborough. In
addition, we are in discussions with both companies for the sale of
LNG. The equity agreements and the LNG supply discussions underline
the long-term value our co-venturers see in the asset, as well as
LNG's place in a decarbonising world.
Our third major project is Trion in the Gulf of
Mexico. We took a final investment decision on Trion last year and
the project is targeting first oil in 2028. Engineering,
procurement, and contracting activities for Trion are progressing,
including the award of the subsea marine installation contract.
In 2023 we took steps to further increase our
capacity to supply our customers in line with forecasted ongoing
global demand for LNG during the energy transition. We signed an
offtake deal with Mexico Pacific, subject to the company taking a
final investment decision on the proposed third train at the
Saguaro Energia LNG Project. This strengthens our position as a
portfolio player, supplying our own LNG, as well as third party
volumes, to our customers.
In our new energy portfolio, we took a final
investment decision on the Hydrogen Refueller @H2Perth. The
refueller is a hydrogen production, storage and refuelling station.
This project is targeting supply of hydrogen to West Australian
domestic trucking customers in 2025. It is modest in scale but is
intended to stimulate demand and demonstrate capability.
Progress is also being made on our proposed H2OK
hydrogen project in Oklahoma as well as the proposed Woodside Solar
project near Karratha. We also continue to advance several carbon
capture and storage opportunities, including the proposed Angel CCS
opportunity. Angel's foundation project could abate up to five
million tonnes per annum of CO2 equivalent.
As Woodside's global presence increases, our
sustainability performance becomes ever more important. In 2023 we
updated our Sustainability Strategy, further embedding
sustainability performance into everything we do.
We are committed to supporting community development
and investments that are important to our host communities. In 2023
we invested A$33.3 million globally in strategic partnerships,
philanthropic programs, employee volunteering, and mandatory
contributions. We strive to maintain real and meaningful
partnerships in the communities where we operate and make them
better places to live.
We are proud of the role our LNG is playing in
supporting decarbonisation and economic growth in Asia. When used
to generate electricity, gas typically produces half the life cycle
emissions of coal. LNG is one of Australia's most important
commodity exports to key trading partners in our region.
But we are also immensely proud of the contribution
we have made to providing safe and reliable energy to homes and
businesses here in Western Australia since the first North Rankin
gas arrived onshore in 1984. In 2023, Woodside's WA assets produced
76 petajoules of domestic gas, representing approximately 19% of
the State's domestic gas supply.
As part of our ongoing and steadfast commitment to
WA, earlier this month we began marketing extra gas to the local
market. In total we will make roughly 32 petajoules of additional
gas available to the WA market by the end of next year.
On the east coast of Australia, 100 per cent of our
gas, which comes from the Bass Strait Project, operated by Esso
Australia, goes to the domestic market. And I am pleased to report
Woodside Bass Strait has initiated an expression of interest
process for 50 petajoules of gas across 2025 and 2026.
We aim to keep building on our record of reliable
domestic gas supply, as we work to deliver the projects needed for
ongoing energy security and economic prosperity through the energy
transition.
Before I close, I want to speak plainly about climate
change. There are many views on how our industry should address
this urgent challenge. Recently we've seen some of our global peers
walk back from climate goals they now realise were too ambitious
amid the uncertainty of the energy transition.
At Woodside, we are determined to play our role in
addressing climate change. But we won't make promises that we can't
deliver. So I give you our commitment that we will set goals and
make decisions informed by the available science, in line with our
capital allocation framework, and with our commitment to energy
security front of mind.
We will also keep listening and responding to you,
our investors, as we continue to develop our strategy to thrive
through the energy transition. I would like to thank all
shareholders for the trust you continue to place in Woodside.
May I echo Richard's thanks to Gene Tilbrook and
Frank Cooper for their wise counsel and wonderful service to the
Woodside Board.
I'd also like to thank the Woodside team. Our people
are skilled, diverse and values-driven, and they are working hard
to deliver our strategy. I am extremely proud to be leading them,
in this, our 70th year.
Safe, reliable and affordable energy transforms
lives.
We must keep this front of mind as we work to
contribute to a stable energy transition.
Thank you.