Woodside Second-Quarter Revenue Climbs 28 Percent But Core LNG Volumes Slide
Higher prices masked falling output at North West Shelf and Wheatstone as weather disruptions and unresolved labour talks weigh on Australia's export machine.
Woodside Energy's second-quarter revenue reached $4.19 billion, up 28 percent quarter-on-quarter, with the average realised price rising 35 percent to $85 per barrel of oil equivalent. The production tables behind those figures tell a different story.6
Pluto LNG delivered 109 terajoules per day at a 90 percent interest share, down from 118 terajoules per day in the prior quarter, with adverse weather cited as the cause. The Pluto-KGP Interconnector lifted 27 terajoules per day, up from 20, as more feed gas moved to Karratha Gas Plant.3
North West Shelf carries the drag. Wheatstone LNG, at an 11.78 percent interest share, produced 211 terajoules per day against 235 a year earlier. Its condensate stream fell to 29 from 31. Woodside's own report attributes the decline to adverse weather.3
EnergyQuest warned as far back as 2022 that Australia may have hit its LNG peak, pointing specifically to continued decline at Woodside's North West Shelf project. The quarterly numbers confirm the direction the consultancy flagged rather than reversing it.7
The labour situation adds a separate pressure that the quarterly attribution to weather does not resolve. Maintenance workers employed by contractor UGL launched protected strike action at North West Shelf and Pluto LNG in May 2026 (2026-05-20), after negotiations over a new enterprise agreement broke down. That action raised fears of tighter global gas supplies at the time. Woodside has not disclosed how much output, if any, was lost to the industrial dispute, and the quarterly filing makes no reference to it.1
JKM, the Asian LNG benchmark, closed Friday's session (2026-09-18) at $26.75 per MMBtu, unchanged on the day. ICE Brent front-month closed the same session at $103.37 per barrel. Neither move signals acute supply panic from the Australian situation. But the absence of a premium does not mean the risk has passed.6
ICE Endex TTF front-month closed Friday (2026-09-18) at €79.54 per megawatt-hour, up 4.28 percent on the session. That European gas move reflects factors well beyond Woodside's quarterly output; it is relevant here only to the extent that tighter Atlantic LNG balances would redirect cargoes away from Asian buyers, tightening the JKM market indirectly. No specific cargo diversion data is in the packet, so the link remains speculative.
Woodside has been adding operational scope in Australia even as volumes at its core assets fall. In July 2026 (2026-07-03), ExxonMobil completed the transfer of operatorship of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture and the Kipper Unit Joint Venture to Woodside, with each partner retaining a 50 percent equity stake.4 More operating responsibility across the east coast does not translate directly to more LNG export volume.
One incremental supply addition: Australia's onshore Waitsia project, operated by Mitsui and equally owned with Beach Energy, began sending gas to a Woodside-operated LNG export facility after starting up in December 2025 (2025-12-01). Waitsia feeds gas into Woodside's Karratha infrastructure and can help fill trains there.2 It is a partial offset to North West Shelf decline, not a replacement for it.
Australia's LNG exporters have been riding what Bloomberg described as a A$20 billion sales windfall from the conflict in the Middle East, but that good fortune triggered public backlash over domestic gas supply.5 A quarterly report showing lower production at North West Shelf gives domestic reservation advocates a concrete data point. State and federal governments have been weighing export controls, and declining output at Australia's oldest LNG plant sharpens those arguments.
Woodside is also expanding its acreage book. In Australia, blocks WR 443, WR 444 and WR 488 were awarded at 80 percent interest, while permit WA-28-P expired. In the United States, permits KC 259, KC 301, KC 343, KC 431 and WR 577 were awarded at 100 percent interest. Exploration and appraisal drilling continued across both regions.3
Negotiations with UGL maintenance workers had not been resolved when protected strike action began in May 2026 (2026-05-20), and further industrial action remains possible.1 Any escalation would affect North West Shelf and Pluto simultaneously. Woodside has given no volume guidance by asset. Traders with JKM length into the fourth quarter will want to see whether the company's next quarterly filing continues to attribute output shortfalls solely to weather, or whether the labour dispute surfaces in the numbers for the first time.