Woodside Expects Around $1.5 Billion of Impairments in 2023 Result

By David Winning

SYDNEY--Woodside Energy said it expects to take impairment charges totaling around $1.5 billion against its Shenzi oil and natural gas field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the Wheatstone natural-gas project in Australia.

Woodside said the lion's share of the impairments, at $1.2 billion after tax, would be against Shenzi and mainly relates to goodwill and part of the purchase price assigned to the asset when its acquisition of BHP Group's oil and gas business completed in June 2022.

"The goodwill and purchase price allocation resulted from application of acquisition accounting principles and reflect both higher hydrocarbon prices and Woodside's share price at the merger completion date," Woodside said on Thursday.

Woodside also expects to recognize an impairment of around $300 million for Wheatstone, which it said was mainly related to short-term pricing.

It said the impairments would be excluded when calculating its full-year dividend. Woodside is due to report its annual result on Feb. 27.

Write to David Winning at david.winning@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 15, 2024 00:07 ET (05:07 GMT)

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