The Woodside Petroleum Ltd [ASX:WPL] share price is down today around to 0.71% after the company’s CEO announced he’ll be retiring next year.
Woodside Petroleum is Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company.
Woodside is looking for a CEO replacement
Woodside’s CEO Peter Coleman has given the company’s chairman Richard Goyder his notice. He’ll be retiring sometime in the second half of 2021.
Chairman Goyder complimented the exiting CEO by saying that he’s ‘been an outstanding CEO and his focus on safety, base business and operational excellence have created a resilient and future-focused organisation.’
According to Peter Coleman, ‘it’s a good time to retire’.
As he said in the announcement:
‘Retiring in 2021 ensures continuity to support the Scarborough investment decision, which will transform Woodside, while ensuring our international projects in Senegal and Myanmar maintain their positive momentum. We value our LNG buyers, joint venture partners and contractors who will continue to be critical to Woodside’s ongoing success.’
Woodside is looking to expand Scarborough with a second LNG train, Pluto Train 2 with a capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). The investment decision has been delayed till the second half of next year.
You can see the plan for the extension below:
Source: Woodside Petroleum
What could happen next?
It’s certainly been a difficult year for Woodside. Lower oil and LNG prices have hit Woodside’s sales revenues this year, even as they’ve increased production.
The pandemic and oil’s collapse in April meant Woodside has had to write-down US$4 billion with two thirds of it related to oil and gas properties earlier this year.
They’ve also had to cut down their workforce by about 8%.
Woodside’s woes have reflected in the price. Woodside shares are down so far 33% for the year, with shares trading at $22.99 at time of writing.
With renewables getting cheaper and many of our major trading partners looking at going carbon neutral in the next decades it remains to be seen what place oil and gas will have in that future.
Why not check out instead editor Greg Canavan’s new report: ‘Five Bounce Back Stocks to Consider during the Market Crash’. In this free report, Greg gives you five stocks he believes will survive the pandemic, no matter how what way it plays out.
You can access this free report here.
Best,
Selva Freigedo