@Smurf1976 any chance you know how true this is? To be able to supply into the EU you need excess uncontracted gas that can go to a LNG terminal for liquefaction and shipping right? Does WDS have that or is it all locked up on contract already?
Main thing I'm aware of so far as Woodside is concerned is the Scarborough (gas field) and Pluto Train 2 (LNG plant) project.
To my understanding from the company's publicly released information:
11.1 trillion cubic feet of gas in the field.
Total production to be 8 million tonnes of LNG per annum of which 3 million comes from increased gas supply to the existing Pluto Train 1 and the other 5 million is due to construction of the new Pluto Train 2.
First shipment expected in 2026 but realistically wouldn't be likely to run at full capacity from day one, will take some time to fully commission it.
From media reports like this one:
https://www.afr.com/companies/energ...borough-with-new-lng-contract-20210219-p57402
They seem to have already contracted some of that gas to a German buyer.
Regardless of who they've sold it to, given present market circumstances they would presumably have been able to sign someone up at a very good price. This chart, which is generic for LNG and not specific to Woodside, sums up the situation pretty well:
Source of that chart is the ACCC. They're reporting it on a monthly basis hence the "blocky" appearance of the chart. For those unaware - the ACCC data is taken pretty seriously by many who need some objective way to put a price on gas. It's a government agency yes, and one that's focused on economic things not energy resources per se, but they're doing a pretty good job of tracking and reporting the actual market situation for a commodity that's generally somewhat opaque when it comes to pricing.
So Woodside would presumably be able to get a pretty good price no matter who physically buys it.
As for Europe, they're nowhere near being able to import enough LNG to replace lost pipeline supply from Russia. To put that into perspective, even if they took the full 8 million tonnes from Woodside's new project, that still only supplies about 3% of total EU consumption or 7% of EU gas imports from Russia (the most important measure) based on the past few years' data.
Another way to look at that is Russia has been exporting "as gas" via pipelines the equivalent of about 105 million tonnes of LNG to the EU in recent years. Plus the EU has been buying about half of the 29 million tonnes of actual LNG that Russia has been exporting.
So that's 120 million tonnes needed all up for the EU to fully replace the Russian gas which has been supplying ~45% of the EU's total gas consumption. Figures will vary slightly by source - I'm referring to EU data first and foremost, using BP and IEA data to fill any gaps.
A key point to note there is that not all but the majority of the Russian gas has physically come in via pipelines. Gas in a pipeline is just that - gas. Versus LNG at -161 degrees that's delivered on a ship and which needs to be turned back into gas which is then injected into the pipelines. Or in practical terms it's difficult to replace one with the other - they need LNG import terminals to receive the LNG and turn it back to gas, there needs to be ships and so on none of which were required for the Russian gas coming by pipeline.
Russia has also been selling the other half of its LNG production to other buyers. Whether that's continuing is unclear.
So in that context Woodside's new 8 million tonnes in 2026 is a big thing for the company but it's by no means a solution to the overall global situation. A decent help perhaps, 8 million tonnes is a decent sized project, but it won't fix the global situation.