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Woodside CEO Expects High LNG Prices ‘For Next Few Years’

The global LNG market was already tight before the war in Ukraine because of underinvestment over the past five years, Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill said. Photo: Reuters.

Australia’s top independent gas producer sees the prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) staying high for several more years.

Woodside Energy Group chief executive Meg O’Neill said the market would have to adjust to supply disruptions in the wake of sanctions on Russia for its war on Ukraine.

“With the invasion, we are seeing the world try to move away from Russian hydrocarbons and that means that demand for LNG from places like Australia is up,” she said.

“We do expect … prices to remain elevated for the next year, perhaps next few years as the world tries to rebalance gas in supply and demand,” O’Neill told reporters on the sidelines of the World Gas Conference.

The global LNG market was already tight before the invasion because of under-investment over the past five years, O’Neill said.

“We took an investment decision last year on our Scarborough project, but those volumes aren’t going to come into the market until 2026 so there is a period that I think things will continue to be tight.”

Woodside owns 100% of the Scarborough project following its merger with BHP Group’s petroleum arm. O’Neill said last week that Woodside has received strong interest from companies for a stake in the project.

Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.