Pietro D. Pitts, international managing editor, Hart Energy: Hi, I'm Pietro Pitts, international managing editor with Hart Energy, here with the OGInterview live, talking with Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill.
Meg O’Neill, CEO, Woodside Energy: Woodside is an Australian-listed energy company. We got our start as the pioneer of the LNG industry in Australia. In 2022, we entered the Gulf of Mexico through a merger with BHP's petroleum business.
PDP: So in terms of the U.S. assets, what do you actually bring to the table in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and why are those assets important in Woodside's portfolio?
MO: We have interest in three assets in the Gulf of Mexico in the U.S. sector. Atlantis, Mad Dog and Shenzi. With Atlantis and Mad Dog, we're in a non-operated position, but we feel like we bring great subsurface capability and the ability to share our technical expertise with the operator to improve the overall outcome of the joint venture. With Shenzi, we operate that facility and I think it's been a great example of how we can bring the technical capability that we've developed over the decades in Australia to bear in the Gulf of Mexico.
PDP: And when we talk about your three growth projects, you have three of them—one in Africa, one in Mexico and then also, obviously, in Australia. How important are those projects for Woodside in the future and how transformational could they be in terms of production and also financial impact for the company?
MO: The projects we're executing right now are a significant reinvestment in the future of the business. So we've got three projects that are in execute phase. The first one is the Sangomar development. It's a deepwater oil development offshore Senegal. It'll be Senegal's first significant oil development. We're very excited. That's expected to produce first oil in the middle of this calendar year. The second project that is in the execute stage, and more than 50% complete, is development of the Scarborough gas field offshore Australia. This is a deepwater gas field. We'll process the gas a bit offshore and take it by pipeline to our onshore Pluto LNG facility, where we're building a second train. This is a very important project for us as we think about meeting the energy needs of our customers in Asia, now and well into the future. And the third project, which is really exciting for us, again leverages our Gulf of Mexico position in the U.S. side to develop a field called Trion, which is on the Mexican side of the Gulf. Deepwater, very high-quality resource. It'll be Mexico's first deep water oil development as well. We're very pleased to be moving that forward, and again in totality, these three fields in many ways represent the future of Woodside.
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