- Global oil demand will peak this decade due to the rising popularity of electric cars.
- Woodside Energy is studying carbon capture projects with the potential to store more than 3,000,000 tons annually by 2030.
Woodside Energy Group, a key supplier of fossil fuels to the Australian region, has said the demand for oil and natural gas will continue to grow for decades. Population growth and industrialisation in developing economies across Asia will drive this growth. According to the CEO of Woodside, Meg O’Neill, the increase in demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), in particular, will continue as buyers seek to secure supplies to support renewables in the power mix as they decarbonise.
Perth-based Woodside is advancing a slate of expansion projects. It continues to target the first LNG shipment from its Scarborough project off the coast of Western Australia in 2026. LNG consumers have been locking in decades-long supply contracts amid intensifying global competition. Some European nations rely more on seaborne gas after Russia cut most of its pipeline flows to the region. Meanwhile, the fuel is a less emissions-intensive alternative to coal.
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report challenges the outlook for growth in LNG. Last month, IEA forecasted demand to be lower than anticipated through the 2040s as the adoption of renewables accelerates. This forecast puts the long-term profitability of some projects into doubt. The agency added that global oil demand will peak this decade due to the rising popularity of electric cars and the cooling of China’s economy.
O’Neill said Woodside’s Sangomar oil development in Senegal will supply oil from mid-2024 and offer crude suited to European refineries. Trion in the Gulf of Mexico targets output from 2028 at a cost of less than $50 a barrel. The producer, targeting a 15 per cent reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2025, is assessing options to reduce the cost of large-scale abatement at its facilities. O’Neill told investors in a presentation that they must decarbonise cost-effectively. She noted that the firm is studying carbon capture projects in Australia with the potential to store more than three million tons a year by 2030 and could sequester emissions for Woodside and customers.