ENERGY INDUSTRIES – AUSTRALIA

Woodside challenges bargaining orders for offshore gas

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 8-Feb-23

Woodside Energy has appealed the Fair Work Commission’s ruling that it must hold collective bargaining negotiations with unions that represent workers at its offshore gas platforms in Western Australia. The FWC had ruled that the Offshore Alliance had secured the majority support of 200 production workers for a collective agreement. However, Woodside contends that supervisors should not have been included in the bargaining order, and that doing so could compromise their ability to perform their duties. Woodside has had a policy of "direct engagement" with employees at its North West Shelf platforms, where it has used individual contracts rather than enterprise agreements since 1994.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LIMITED – ASX WDS, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, OFFSHORE ALLIANCE

MinRes hands Hancock victory in Warrego fight

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 7-Feb-23

Hancock Energy has secured control of takeover target Warrego Energy after Mineral Resources agreed to sell its stake to the Gina Rinehart-backed company. Hancock now has a 50.54 per cent stake in Warrego, which means that its cash bid will automatically be extended by two weeks. Mineral Resources had built up a 19.17 per cent holding in Warrego, and described it as a "strategic stake" rather than a prelude to a rival takeover bid. Strike Energy, which launched a takeover bid for Warrego in late 2022, has advised that it will consider its options.

CORPORATES
WARREGO ENERGY LIMITED – ASX WGO, HANCOCK ENERGY PTY LTD, MINERAL RESOURCES LIMITED – ASX MIN, STRIKE ENERGY LIMITED – ASX STX

Santos pumps up the sales volume with record year

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 15 : 20-Jan-23

Oil and gas producer Santos has advised that its total output for calendar 2022 was 103.2 million barrels of oil equivalent. This was at the lower end of its full-year guidance, but 12 per cent higher than the previous year. Production fell by two per cent quarter-on-quarter in the final three months of 2022 after a gas leak forced the temporary closure of the John Brookes platform in November; it is not expected to resume production before the end of January, which has prompted Santos to slightly downgrade its production guidance for 2023. Meanwhile, Santos’s revenue rose by 65 per cent to a record $US7.8bn ($11.2bn) in 2022.

CORPORATES
SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO

Australian LNG cargo reaches gas-starved EU

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 & 18 : 29-Nov-22

Woodside Energy has shipped a 75,000-tonne cargo of LNG to north-west Europe, amid the ongoing energy crisis in the region. The shipment had been bought by Germany-based Uniper and arrived at Rotterdam nearly one month after leaving the North West Shelf export terminal in Western Australia. It is estimated that the shipment would be worth around $194m, based on the current spot price. Australia’s LNG exporters generally prefer markets in Asia, given the distances involved in shipping gas to Europe.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LIMITED – ASX WDS, UNIPER, NORTH WEST SHELF LNG PTY LTD

Gas, coal and lithium drives export record

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 4-Oct-22

The Department of Industry, Science & Resources has forecast that the value of Australia’s commodity exports will rise to a record $450bn in 2022-23. It had previously forecast that revenue from commodity exports would fall to just $311bn in the current fiscal year, following a record $422bn in 2021-22. The revised forecast has been driven by expectations that the price of LNG, coal and lithium will stay high. Iron ore shipments are forecast to total $119bn in 2022-23.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND RESOURCES

Conservation group seeks injunction to stop Woodside gas project to protect Great Barrier Reef

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Original article by Michael Slezak, Penny Timms
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 22-Jun-22

The Australian Conservation Foundation has launched a legal challenge in a bid to block Woodside Energy’s offshore Scarborough gas project in Western Australia. The ACF contends that the project will damage Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef by exacerbating climate change and will heighten the risk of future mass coral bleaching events. Scarborough has received major environmental approvals from the WA and federal governments, and Woodside made a final investment decision to proceed with the project in 2021.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LIMITED – ASX WDS, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INCORPORATED

Gas workers threaten bans over outsourcing

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 26-May-22

Production workers on Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility are preparing to launch industrial action, Amongst other things, they are seeking a ban on the outsourcing of jobs to contractors on lower pay than that of direct employees who do the same job. Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Daniel Walton says it will not budge from the basic starting point that workers doing the same work on the same site should be paid the same rate.

CORPORATES
SHELL COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, SHELL PLC, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES

Gas companies made almost $1m in donations to Labor and Liberals

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Original article by Royce Kurmelovs
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 2-Feb-22

Analysis of the Australian Electoral Commission’s political donation records show that fossil fuel producers and their lobby groups donated a combined $959,115 to the nation’s three largest political parties in 2020-21. The analysis by 350.org shows that the Liberal Party received $506,810 in total, ahead of Labor ($392,354) and the National Party ($59,991). Woodside Petroleum topped the list of donors, contributing a combined $232,250 to the coffers of the Liberal and Labor parties; it was followed by the Minerals Council of Australia, which donated $193,943 in total to the three political parties. The Greens do not accept donations from fossil fuel companies.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSION, 350.ORG

Woodside closes GIP Pluto deal

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Original article by Matt Bell
The Australian – Page: 15 : 19-Jan-22

Woodside Petroleum has completed a deal to sell a stake in the Pluto LNG plant to US-based Global Infrastructure Partners. The $4.9bn deal for GIP to buy a 49 per cent stake in the Pluto LNG Train 2 joint venture had been announced in November. The new processing unit at the Pluto project is expected to cost $US5.6bn ($7.8bn) in total, with shipments slated to begin in 2026. Jack Bertolus of climate shareholder action group Market Forces has criticised National Australia Bank for heading a consortium of 18 banks that will provide lending to GIP for the project.

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERS, MARKET FORCES

Big Oil Search investors baulk at $21b merger

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 18 : 1-Dec-21

Oil Search shareholders will vote on the proposed $21bn merger with Santos on 7 December, and proxy votes are likely to determine whether the deal proceeds. The four major proxy advisers have backed the deal, albeit with some qualifications regarding valuation. Several large institutional shareholders in Oil Search have indicated that they will vote against the deal. However, investors with shares in both Oil Search and Santos are said to be largely supportive of the merger.

CORPORATES
OIL SEARCH LIMITED – ASX OSH, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO