Woodside greenlights $17.5 billion US LNG project, targets 2029 start

Woodside Energy, a company based in Australia, has made the final investment decision for a Liquefied Natural Gas project (LNG) in Louisiana. The total capital expenditures (capex), which is estimated at $17.5 billion, are included. The announcement follows last week's statement by the oil company that it was assessing U.S. trade measures and tariffs on its Louisiana project in order to give it a final approval.

The project's three separate processing units, or trains, with a 16.5 million-ton-per-annum (Mtpa) capacity, are expected to begin production in 2029. Two more LNG trains could be added to the project, increasing its capacity to 27,6 Mtpa.

Woodside said that the investment would help it deliver 24 Mtpa of its global LNG portfolio over the next decade. This will contribute to more than 5% in global LNG supply. Stonepeak, a Louisiana LNG Infrastructure LLC investor, will contribute $5.7 billion to the expected capex in an accelerated manner, putting Woodside's share of capex at $11.8 billion.

Woodside said that its greenhouse gas reduction targets remained unchanged following the final investment decision for the U.S. Project. (Reporting and editing by Alan Barona, Sumana Nandy and Adwitiya Shrivastava from Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)