Voelte said exploration and production costs have jumped considerably and it needs “prudent management” of its exploration portfolio and budget as it pursues the Browse and Pluto liquefied natural gas projects in Australia.
“You can expect to see those parts of the portfolio we consider to be of a lower materiality, or no longer strategic, to be shelved or divested,” Voelte told shareholders.
But he did not give specific details as to which part of its portfolio Woodside was considering losing.
The company has production assets in Australia, United States, the Middle East and Africa.
Voelte also used the AGM to again criticise the Western Australian Government over its domestic gas supply policy.
The company last year agreed to the WA Government’s demand that it set aside 15% of gas from its Pluto project in the state’s northwest for domestic use.
ABC News has reported that at the AGM yesterday, Voelte told reporters he had no problem with setting aside the gas at a cheaper rate for residential customers, which make up about 5% of the domestic gas market.
But Voelte said he is opposed to providing cheaper gas to industrial customers.
“Why don’t I get to sell it at a world-scale price like Rio Tinto gets for their product and what everybody else, Alcoa, gets for their product?” ABC quoted him as saying.
“Why do I have to subsidise those companies?
“That’s 95%. It’s an absolute joke of an argument.”
At the AGM, chairman Charles Goode described Woodside’s track record on domestic gas as “self evident” and said the company has been the largest individual contributor to West Australian industrial and domestic gas sales for the past 20 years.
“We do not see domestic gas as a hindrance to our projects, but rather an opportunity, provided the sales are at market prices,” he said.
Australia’s biggest independent oil and gas producer also said at the meeting that cutting greenhouse gases is one of its priorities.
Goode told shareholders that Woodside supports moves to establish a carbon emissions trading scheme to reduce greenhouse gases globally.
But he said such a system cannot be allowed to make the company uncompetitive.
“We aim, however, to have the contribution of natural gas to the global emissions reduction effort recognised, particularly as LNG displaces the use of fuels like coal and oil in the importing country,” Goode said.
