Overview
- Woodside exercised its pre-emptive right on Friday to acquire PetroChina's 10.67% Browse stake, matching the Inpex terms by paying US$225 million, reimbursing recent cash calls and agreeing a US$175 million contingent payment if the joint venture reaches a final investment decision by June 30, 2032.
- If no other partner exercises pre-emption and regulators approve the deal, Woodside's interest in Browse would rise to 41.27%, increasing its influence over project planning and commercial decisions.
- The exercise blocks the planned sale of the stake to Japan's Inpex and follows a separate BP sale of 5% to GS Energy, a shift that comes as Inpex deals with labour disruptions at its Ichthys plant.
- Project backers plan to develop Browse with floating offshore extraction and a roughly 900 km pipeline to the Karratha North West Shelf facilities, a design proponents say cuts costs and links upstream value to existing processing capacity.
- The transaction matters for jobs, taxes and domestic gas supply if the project proceeds but faces federal environmental review because of concerns such as potential impacts on Scott Reef and other marine areas.