Woodside Energy Fiscal Year Net Profit Falls 24%

By David Winning

SYDNEY--Woodside Energy said its annual net profit fell by 24% as lower crude oil and liquefied natural gas prices more than offset an increase to production that was supported by the strong performance of its Sangomar oil field in Senegal.

Woodside reported a net profit of US$2.72 billion for the 12 months through December, down from US$3.57 billion a year ago. The result benefited from hedging gains and a profit on the sale of assets in Trinidad, but held back by higher petroleum resource rent tax payments in Australia and an impairment charge of US$113 million tied to Woodside's decision to exit the H20K hydrogen project in Oklahoma.

On an underlying basis, which helps to determine dividend payouts, Woodside said its profit totaled US$2.65 billion, down 8% on a year ago.

Directors of the company declared a final dividend of US$0.59 per share, up from US$0.53 a year ago. Woodside said it represented a payout of 80% of underlying net profit, in line with levels of recent years.

Analysts had expected Woodside to report a lower statutory profit after its annual sales revenue fell by 1% to US$12.98 billion despite a 3% improvement in production to 198.8 million barrels of oil equivalent. Revenue declined due to a 5% fall in the average price that Woodside received for its oil and gas output to US$60/BOE.

This year is shaping up to be a transitional year for the Perth-based company. Woodside is looking for a new chief executive after Meg O'Neill stepped down as chief executive to take the helm at oil major BP from April 1. Tuesday's result was delivered by acting CEO Liz Westcott, who had led Woodside's Australian operations since joining the Perth-based company in the middle of 2023.

"Our strong underlying net profit of US$2.6 billion and free cash flow of US$1.9 billion is a testament to the performance of the base business during a period of increased capital expenditure and softening prices," Westcott said.

The company is bringing on new projects that it hopes will support production growth into the future. The first of these developments--the Beaumont New Ammonia project in Texas--achieved maiden output in December. Woodside also aims to ship the first cargo of LNG from its Scarborough project in Australia in the fourth quarter of this year, which will require its Pluto LNG facility to be offline for around five weeks in the second quarter to prepare it for processing gas from the new development.

Its medium-term project pipeline includes the Louisiana LNG project in the U.S., which was 22% complete at the end of December. In October, Woodside said U.S.-based Williams would invest in Louisiana LNG, reducing its share of development costs and securing a partner with deep knowledge of U.S. pipeline networks and natural-gas markets.

Westcott said on Tuesday that discussions are ongoing over the potential sale of an additional stake in Louisiana LNG of up to 20%.

"Woodside's objectives for 2026 are clear: ramp up Beaumont; deliver first LNG cargo from Scarborough; and continue progressing Louisiana LNG and Trion to schedule and budget," she said. Trion is Woodside's oil development in the Gulf of Mexico, which is 50% complete.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 23, 2026 17:32 ET (22:32 GMT)