Woodside shares closed at $11.62 on turnover of 4,952,677 shares, on speculation that a new takeover attempt for Woodside was in the pipeline. The stock was at $10.85 before the news of John Akehurst's departure hit the market.

With the imminent departure of Akehurst, the sharemarket is punting on a renewed takeover play by Royal Dutch/Shell. Woodside shares had recently fallen to a three-year low of $10, well short of the $14.80 offered by Royal Dutch/Shell in April, 2001.

The renewed market interest followed a press conference in Canberra where Peter Costello did not reject the notion of a new Woodside takeover.

Reading into what Costello had not said, as opposed to what he did, gave the market the feeling the national interest argument that prevented Shell's last takeover attempt carries far less weight now.

Analysts are not as confident on Cabinet rejection of a takeover based on national interest grounds this time. One said the grounds for rejection based on Shell holding back the North West Shelf development are no longer as relevant as beforehand.

He stated that since the previous bid from Shell, Woodside’s North West Shelf has won Chinese and South Korean contracts and has secured enough volume for the expansion of train-4 and most of train-5.

Russell Langusch in a report for Patterson Ord Minnett stated that a new Chief Executive “may act as a catalyst for the start of some degree of share price recovery.” He also notes that John Akehurst had “failed to deliver as the company made a couple of ham-fisted attempts to pursue major international acquisitions.”

“He’s been there a long time and the company's in need of a change," said Shaw Stockbroking analyst John Colnan. "Nine years is a long time to run a company and people get stale."

At press time Woodside was trading at $11.36.

By Peter Hayes.