Woodside has completed the sale of a 15.1% interest in the Scarborough JV to JERA, Japan's power generation company.
This completion comes after Woodside announced on 23 February this year that it had expanded its strategic partnership with JERA through a transaction that included equity in the Scarborough JV, liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtake, and collaboration on potential new energy and lower carbon service opportunities.
Woodside received approximately $1.4bn from the sale of equity in the Scarborough JV, which includes both the purchase price and reimbursed expenses.
Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill said: “Participation in the Scarborough Joint Venture is a key part of our strong and highly valued strategic relationship with JERA. That relationship reflects our shared view that gas will play an important role in the global energy transition for decades to come.
“This latest sale of equity in Scarborough again underlines the long-term value Japanese customers like JERA are placing on gas and the significance of LNG in Japan and the region’s energy security.
“In addition to supplying markets in north Asia, the project will be an important source of gas for the domestic market in Western Australia [WA].
“The team is delivering the Scarborough Energy Project to plan and work is now almost three-quarters complete. We remain on track for targeted first LNG cargo in 2026.”
The Scarborough field is located around 375km off the coast of Karratha, WA.
This month, Woodside completed the 433km trunkline installation for the Scarborough Energy project.
JERA senior managing executive officer and chief low carbon fuel officer Ryosuke Tsugaru said: “JERA and Woodside share a determination to responsibly navigate the energy transition, with LNG set to be an essential ‘firming fuel’ across the world for many years to come – particularly in developing regions.
“As population grows, so does the demand for energy and the first step in the energy transition for many countries is to make the move away from coal-fuelled power to LNG.
“JERA is directly involved in decarbonisation efforts in the Asian region, including projects in various stages of development to switch power plants from coal to LNG.”
Following the sale, Woodside retains a 74.9% interest in the Scarborough JV and will continue as the operator.
The deal has led to a reduction in Woodside's proved undeveloped reserves by 194.3 millions of barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) to 964mboe and its proved plus probable undeveloped reserves by 303.6mboe to 1.51 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Gas is in negotiations with Woodside Energy to acquire a stake in a multi-billion-dollar LNG export project in Louisiana, US, reported Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the discussions.
