Woodside cuts low-carbon goals, advances oil growth as crude profits rise

Woodside Energy is advancing oil developments in Senegal, Mexico, and the US Gulf, while retiring two 2030 energy-transition targets and reviewing its US ammonia business, according to the company's results for the first half of 2026 released on Aug. 25.

Woodside's realized oil and condensate price increased to $92 per barrel of oil equivalent from $71/boe, alongside an increase in average Dated Brent to $93/barrel from $72/b, despite a 4% decline in total liquids production to 39.4 million boe for the half year, according to its release.

The Australian producer reported a first-half net profit after tax of $1.67 billion, up 27% from a year earlier, while operating revenue rose 13% to $7.45 billion.

"H1 2026 sales of Sangomar crude oil were directed to Europe and South Asia during the Middle East conflict, attracting strong premiums," the company said, adding that its equity production from the Sangomar field offshore Senegal reached 15 million barrels, up 4% year over year.

Woodside added that it is evaluating a potential second phase of development that could leverage existing infrastructure to produce from additional reservoirs. The company, as the project operator, holds an 82% participating interest.

Sangomar produced an average of 99,000 barrels/day on a 100% basis in the first half of the year, according to Woodside.

Shifting focus

At the results briefing, the company's CEO, Liz Westcott, said Woodside would retire targets to invest $5 billion in new energy products and low-carbon services by 2030 and make final investment decisions on projects with a total emissions-abatement capacity of 5 million mt/year of CO2 equivalent by the same date.

While retiring the 2030 Scope 3 investment and abatement targets, the company has retained its 2030 target to reduce net-equity Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

Woodside has also placed its wholly owned Beaumont New Ammonia business in Texas under strategic review. The 1.1 million mt/year plant began producing conventional ammonia in December 2025, and Woodside assumed operational control in March following OCI Global's handover. The plant produced 279,000 mt in H1, achieving 87.6% reliability.

Separately, Woodside retired the remaining assets of its liquid hydrogen project, H2OK, after determining they were unrecoverable. It recognized a $43 million pre-tax impairment, reducing the carrying value to zero, following a $142 million impairment in 2025.

The pullback came amid continued investment in oil and expansion of its LNG growth pipeline, including Louisiana LNG and the near-complete Scarborough Energy Project.

The company said that its deepwater project offshore Mexico, Trion, is 64% complete as of the end of June and remains on track for first oil in 2028.

The project includes 24 subsea wells, a floating production unit capable of producing 100,000 b/d of crude, and a floating storage and offloading vessel.

In the Gulf of America, output increased at Atlantis and Mad Dog as new wells came online, while Woodside was awarded 10 offshore exploration blocks and reported a Miocene oil and gas discovery at the Bandit-1 exploration well.