Australia’s Woodside Energy Group Ltd on Wednesday backed its annual production guidance, despite a weakening in second-quarter sales and production compared to the beginning of 2023.

In the second quarter, Woodside said production fell 4.9% from the first quarter to 44.5 million barrels of oil equivalent, but this was up 32% from a year before.

Sales fell 4.0% from the prior quarter to 48.4 million boe, but was up 35% from the prior year. The quarterly fall in sales was mostly the result of lower production, Woodside said.

‘Whilst production and sales were lower compared with the first quarter of 2023, they were higher than the corresponding period last year, reflecting Woodside‘s expanded operations portfolio,’ said Chief Executive Officer Meg O’Neill.

The decline in production was mostly due to the planned major turnarounds on Pluto liquefied natural gas and Ngujima-Yin floating production storage and offloading facility.

‘This was partly offset by seasonal demand from Bass Strait and higher production from Mad Dog following first production from the Argos facility in April 2023,’ Woodside said.

Revenue during the quarter plunged 29% from the first quarter to $3.08 billion from $4.33 billion, and was 10% below the $3.44 billion achieved a year before.

The decline was due to a lower average realised price, which was $63 in the second quarter, down from $85 in the first quarter, and $95 a year before.

Despite the decline in the second quarter, the Perth-based company left production guidance for 2023 unchanged, still expecting between 180 and 190 million boe, which would be up from the record 157.7 million boe in 2022.

Shares in Woodside were up 1.4% to A$36.05 in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. They had closed down 0.8% at 1,853.28 pence in London the day before.

On Tuesday, Woodside said first oil at the Sangomar FPSO facility offshore Senegal is now expected in mid-2024, following unexpected remedial work.

Woodside expects the total project cost to be between $4.9 billion and $5.2 billion, between 7% and 13% higher than the previous estimate of $4.6 billion.

‘We have taken the prudent decision to conduct the remedial work while the FPSO remains at the shipyard in Singapore. This minimises the impact to the project schedule as it is safer, more efficient and more cost-effective than undertaking the work offshore Senegal,’ CEO O’Neill explained on Wednesday.

Woodside releases its financial results for the half year on August 22.

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