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SYDNEY, May 8 (Reuters) - Australia's 30 biggest pension funds increased their investments in key coal, oil and gas producers by 50% in 2022 despite the funds' long term commitments to net zero carbon emissions, environmental activist group Market Forces said. Superannuation or retirement funds raised their investment to more than A$34 billion ($23 billion) in companies most responsible for expanding fossil fuels, Market Forces said. Market Forces only named AustralianSuper, which it said had increased its stake in Woodside Energy Group Ltd (WDS.AX), Australia's top independent gas producer, by about 19 times in 2022. In an emailed response, AustralianSuper said it had raised its stake as gas was a key part of an "orderly energy transition" ahead. It estimated more than A$140 billion of Australians' retirement savings are invested in fossil fuel companies through the funds, which have more than 9% of members' share investments in these firms on average.

☆ Australia govt to change petroleum tax, LNG projects to pay more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, May 6 (Reuters) - Australia will change its Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT) to increase the tax paid by the offshore LNG industry, moves that should increase revenue by A$2.4 billion ($1.6 billion) over the next four fiscal years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Saturday. "Under the current rules, most LNG projects are not expected to pay any significant amounts of PRRT until the 2030s. The Treasury review of gas pricing was started under the previous conservative government. Chalmers said both reviews had found that aspects of the PRRT were better suited to oil projects than LNG projects, and the deductions cap and other changes would help address that. There is expected to be a substantial improvement in the budget position due to higher than expected commodity prices boosting revenues.

☆ BP agrees to buy Shell's stake in Australian Browse gas project
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Samuel Mckeith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Woodside, BP and Shell are also all stakeholders in the North West Shelf LNG plant. "BP believes development of the Browse gas resources could make a significant contribution to energy security in Australia and to the Asia Pacific region," a BP spokesperson said. The company said it supported the concept of using carbon capture for the project and processing Browse gas in the North West Shelf LNG plant. Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said it was likely "very modest" given "the risks and ongoing spend required at the Browse project". Woodside last week played down concerns over the status of Browse project and told Reuters talks had resumed with the North West Shelf LNG joint venture about a processing deal for Browse.

In Norway, this will be exported to Europe, while in Kenya it will be turned into fertiliser for local farmers. FLAT IRON ORE OUTPUTFortescue on Monday posted steady iron ore shipments in the March quarter, while costs jumped 12%, but retained its full year shipment guidance despite a cyclone this month that disrupted exports from Australia's iron ore hub. Shares in the world's fourth largest iron ore miner fell as much as 5.3%, underperforming a 2.2% drop in the broader mining sector (.AXMJ) amid a drop in iron ore prices to near four-month lows on demand concerns. It left its shipments guidance for the year to June 2023 unchanged at 187 Mt to 192 Mt. Fortescue said it aims to start mining at its Belinga Iron Ore project in Gabon in the second half of 2023.

☆ Australia passes tougher emissions reduction law that hits gas investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, March 30 (Reuters) - New rules that cap total Australian greenhouse gas emissions and curb some new gas and coal investments in the country will come into effect on 1 July after parliament passed an upgraded emissions reduction plan on Thursday. Negotiations with the Greens, who wanted a ban on all new fossil fuel investments, resulted in a law including a hard total emissions cap, ministerial review for projects that raise total emissions and compulsory disclosures for polluters that rely heavily on carbon offsets to meet their targets. Under the revised legislation, projects such as the massive Browse field that Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) wants to develop would have to have carbon capture and storage to achieve net zero. The legislation also requires all new gas projects in the Beetaloo Basin to have net zero carbon emissions and new gas fields supplying existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants to have net zero reservoir emissions, imposing new costs. Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Australia's biggest pension funds cut China exposure, buy fossil fuels
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Lewis Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SYDNEY, March 30 (Reuters) - Two of Australia's largest pension funds pulled money out of Chinese stocks and boosted positions in the country's fossil fuel sector in the final six months of 2022, according to filings published on Thursday. Both funds collectively increased their shareholdings in Woodside Energy Group (WDS.AX), Australia's largest independent natural gas producer, by roughly 14 million shares. The disclosures come just days after activist investors accused the big Australian pension funds of failing to push fossil fuel producers like Woodside hard enough to decarbonise. The figures reveal pension funds pulling back from China during the back half of 2022, a time when investors across the developed world were reconsidering exposure to a country still subject to strict COVID lockdowns. Aware Super said in a statement it had a "relatively small exposure" to China mostly via external managers.

SYDNEY, March 27 (Reuters) - Australia's lower house on Monday passed an emissions reduction plan with curbs on some new gas and coal investments and a cap on total greenhouse gas emissions from the country's biggest polluters after a key deal with the Greens Party. The updated legislation also requires all new gas projects in the Beetaloo Basin to have net zero carbon emissions and new gas fields supplying existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants to have net zero reservoir emissions, imposing new costs. "Today, we are a step closer to achieving net zero by 2050," Energy Minister Chris Bowen said. Under the revised legislation, projects such as the massive Browse field that Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) wants to develop would have to have carbon capture and storage to achieve net zero. The government said it would tip in A$400 million ($266 million) to help the cement, steel and aluminium industries decarbonise.

☆ Big Oil’s old profligacy lives on Down Under
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Antony Currie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Throw in dividends and Santos shareholders have received a measly 6% total return during that period. Santos’ 15% return on capital employed last year puts it at the bottom of the class; BP delivered almost 25%. It looks slated to stay in the basement, with analysts projecting a sub-8% return for 2025, per Refinitiv data. The bonus is mostly tied to successful “growth projects”, which arguably encourages him to overinvest. If that happens again at next month’s annual meeting, it would, under Australian rules, allow investors to boot the entire board.

☆ Australian Indigenous group steps up campaign to protect sacred rock art
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Praveen Menon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/4] Murujuga indigenous custodians campaign to protect sacred rock art in The Burrup Peninsula, Sydney, Australia July 11, 2022. Save our Songlines/Handout via REUTERSSYDNEY, March 2 (Reuters) - An Australian Indigenous group on Thursday stepped up its campaign against industrial development in Western Australia's Burrup Peninsula, a key gas export hub, saying in a protest in Sydney that planned projects would damage ancient rock art. Australia last month formally nominated the Murujuga Indigenous cultural landscape for a UNESCO World Heritage listing. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, the traditional owners' representative, led the preparation of the World Heritage nomination. Save our Songlines has disagreed with the group over the industrial development and has raised doubts that a World Heritage listing would protect the ancient landscape from industrial damage.

☆ Australian shares hit near 9-month high as energy, tech stocks boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Members of the Chinese Youth League perform a lion dance for onlookers at Haymarket on Jan. 21, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. Australian shares inched higher on Monday to their highest in nearly nine months, as technology stocks tracked Wall Street's strong finish last week and firm crude oil prices lifted energy stocks. In Australia, energy stocks climbed 0.5% after oil prices settled higher on Friday as economic prospects brightened in China, the world's second-biggest economy. The sub-index hit its highest since Nov. 24 last year, with major oil and gas producers Woodside Energy and Santos gaining 1.2% and 1.5%, respectively. Technology stocks advanced 1.1% to hit a more than one-month high.

☆ Newcrest CEO Biswas steps down, hunt for new chief underway
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MELBOURNE, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM.AX) Chief Executive Sandeep Biswas will retire from his role at the helm of Australia's largest gold producer, the company said on Monday. Chief Financial Officer Sherry Duhe, who joined the company in February, will step in as interim chief executive while a global internal and external search for a replacement is underway, Newcrest said in a filing to the exchange. Duhe comes from an energy background, having previously worked as CFO of Woodside Energy, and spent 13 years at Shell. Biswas, who will relinquish his role as a managing director as of Monday, will stay on in an advisory capacity until March 18. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Australia seeks to limit gas producers' profits as prices soar
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Samuel Mckeith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The move, detailed late Friday, comes as gas producers face fierce criticism over soaring energy prices that have resulted in windfall profits from their Australian operations. The government said it would cap gas prices at A$12 per gigajoule (GJ) and coal prices for power plants at A$125 per tonne for one year in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said were "extraordinary measures" to drive down energy bills. It would not apply to gas sales on the spot market, and would remain in place until the regulator advised the government that domestic gas prices were "reflective of the underlying costs of production". "This may be taken as a declaration of war on the gas industry on the east coast," Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said. The government earlier this year forecast household gas and power prices would rise by 20% to 30% over each of the next two years.

☆ Woodside Energy discusses Australia's energy situation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBest long-term answer to Australia's energy situation is investment in more supply: Woodside EnergyMeg O'Neill of Woodside Energy says "things like price caps just aren't going to work."

☆ Australia's Fortescue taps Woodside veteran as CEO amid green energy push
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of Australia's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) can be seen on a bulk carrier as it is loaded with iron ore at the coastal town of Port Hedland in Western Australia, November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Melanie Burton/File PhotoNov 29 (Reuters) - Australia's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX) on Tuesday appointed former Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) executive Fiona Hick as its chief executive officer, effective February 2023, as Elizabeth Gaines made way for a new boss in August. Hick joins Fortescue at a time when the iron ore giant is delving into mining of critical minerals and rare-earths and is also striving to transition into a green energy firm through its unit Fortescue Future Industries (FFI). She will lead Fortescue Metals' mining arm, culminating a year-long search by the company's billionaire-founder and chairman Andrew Forrest. Gaines, who oversaw a tripling in the share price of one of the world's biggest iron ore miners in the past four years, remains on Fortescue's board as a non-executive director.

But it is spreading across finance, energy, retail and aviation, threatening to push up labour costs in industries facing supply-chain bottlenecks and worker shortages. The turmoil is especially pronounced because union power was curtailed in Australia under laws in place since the 1990s. In the year to June, the average Australian wage rose 2.6%, compared with inflation of 6.1%, according to official data. Despite seven interest-rate hikes since May, inflation is set to climb further before subsiding in 2023, the government says. But in the current climate in Australia, workers are in no mood to back down.

☆ Idealab founder Bill Gross started selling solar energy kits in 1973 at 15 years old. Now he's leading solar tech company Heliogen
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Idealab and Heliogen Founder Bill Gross speaks onstage during Vox Media's 2022 Code Conference on September 08, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California. "Because I was reading Popular Science magazine, I saw people used to take out little ads in the back," Gross told CNBC. One limiting factor for solar energy is its intermittency, which means it only delivers power when the sun is shining. But we're delivering the energy continuously because the energy is coming out of the rock bed," Gross told CNBC. The price of fossil fuels after Russia invaded Ukraine is a game changer," Gross told CNBC.

☆ Woodside ships first Australian LNG cargo direct to Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MELBOURNE, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Woodside Energy Group (WDS.AX) said on Monday it has shipped a liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to Europe from Australia's North West Shelf project for the first time, which the buyer Uniper said would help make up for supply lost from Russia. The 75,000-tonne cargo, equivalent to 100 million cubic metres of gas, was delivered on Nov. 27 to Uniper Global Commodities SE (Uniper) at the Gate Terminal on Maasvlakte, Woodside, Australia's top independent gas producer, said. Almost all LNG from Australia goes to Asia, with rare shipments going to South America. In August, amid Europe's hunt for gas to replace Russian supply, an Australian cargo was transferred onto a ship in Malaysian waters to go to Britain. Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Subhranshu SahuOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Woodside lifts output forecast as revenue soars on high energy prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The company became a top-10 global independent oil and gas producer after its merger with BHP's petroleum arm was finalised this year, helping it double its output. read moreWoodside gained from weaker energy supplies following the Ukraine war, which pushed liquefied natural gas prices to new highs and forced buyers to scramble for alternate supplies from countries like Australia. Woodside also said it produced 51.2 mmboe during the quarter, the first full quarter of production since its merger with BHP's petroleum arm, compared with 22.2 mmboe a year earlier. This, along with the newly acquired BHP assets, helped boost quarterly revenue to $5.86 billion, from $1.53 billion a year ago. Woodside also said its Sangomar oil and gas project in Senegal was 70% complete at the end of September, with first production targeted for the latter half of 2023.

☆ European shares edge higher as investors await new UK fiscal plan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Amruta Khandekar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The region-wide STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was up 0.3%, extending gains for a third straight session. European equities have suffered losses in the recent weeks as investors fret about the prospects of a recession from aggressive central bank actions to tame inflation. Most STOXX 600 sectors were trading up, with energy stocks (.SXEP) up 0.6% as oil prices rose driven by hopes of better demand from China. The bank has agreed to pay $495 million to settle a case brought against it in the United States. read moreNel (NEL.OL) rose 7.3% after the Norwegian hydrogen company received a NOK 600 million ($56.4 million) order from Woodside Energy (WDS.AX) for a U.S. hydrogen project.

☆ Investment management firm explains why it's positive on Woodside Energy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailInvestment management firm explains why it's positive on Woodside EnergyHugh Dive of Atlas Funds Management says Woodside Energy has a lot of potential for growth.

☆ Australia's Scarborough project: Race and power collide in a fight over sacred rock art in remote Australia
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Hannah Ritchie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +21 min

More than a million drawings are etched onto rocks on Murujuga peninsula on the Western Australia coast. Resources extracted from the region have powered Australia’s economy and helped create some of the world’s largest mining and energy multinationals. Today, the fight for Murujuga’s rock art reflects long-standing and unresolved issues of race and power. Woodside Petroleum's Pluto development on Murujuga, Western Australia, June 2008. Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Peter Jeffries.

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