Woodside gas deal ramps up trading arm

Original article by Brian Robins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 2-Jul-14

A LNG marketing and trading division was established by Australian-listed Woodside Petroleum in 2011. After recently abandoning a planned major investment in a gas field offshore Israel, Woodside has now boosted the trading arm by signing a deal with US group Cheniere Energy. The latter will supply 850,000 tonnes of LNG annually for two decades and possibly a third, from its Corpus Christi facility in Texas. Woodside will buy the gas for 15% above the domestic US spot price and an additional $US3.50 per million British thermal units

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, CHENIERE ENERGY INCORPORATED, BG GROUP PLC, BP PLC, CREDIT SUISSE (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED

75,000 jobs to go in mining’s new phase

Original article by Barry FitzGerald
The Australian – Page: 21-22 : 2-Jul-14

Justin Fabo, senior economist corporate and commercial at ANZ Banking, predicts the Australian resources and related services sector to shed up to 75,000 jobs by 2016. This would be a decline of 28%, and result from the transition from the construction to production phase at many mining and energy projects. Already, over-capacity in the market has brought redundancies at coal and iron ore operation. Fabo stresses that out of the 75,000 workers affected, a large share will be temporary migrants, and that these will simply return home rather than add to the nation’s unemployment rate

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, AUSTRALIAN WORKFORCE AND PRODUCTIVITY AGENCY

Shell deal may hurt Woodside growth plans

Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 20 : 6/19/2014

The stock of Australian-listed energy group Woodside Petroleum on 18 June 2014 closed $A1.95 lower at $A40.90. This compares with a price of $A41.35 for the institutional investors acquiring scrip in the partial divestment of its Woodside stake by Royal Dutch Shell. As part of the reduction from 23.1% to less than 4.5%, Shell is also selling $US2.68bn ($A2.86bn) worth of stock back to Woodside. Experts warn this may hamper the latter’s acquisitions strategy. Woodside needs to secure a major new project to fill a gap once current LNG developments mature

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, BHP BILLITON LIMITED – ASX BHP, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD

Shell out: Woodside’s new era

Original article by Andrew Burrell
The Australian – Page: 21 and 25 : 18-Jun-14

Royal Dutch Shell will receive $US2.68bn ($A2.86bn) from Australian-listed Woodside Petroleum, for 9.5% of the latter’s stock at a price per share of $A36.49. Shell will also divest a tranche of the same size at $A41.35 to institutional investors, and reduce its holding in Woodside to no more than 4.5%. The Australian Taxation Office has given Woodside permission to use franking credits in order to lower the price by 14%. CEO Peter Coleman notes the more efficient capital structure being created by the stock repurchasing move, and says it will have no adverse impact on exploration or acquisitions

CORPORATES
WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, GOLDMAN SACHS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, CITIGROUP PTY LTD, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, MORNINGSTAR PTY LTD, PLATO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, PATERSONS SECURITIES LIMITED