Woodside Petroleum 1H Half Year Results

Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) have released their 1H Half Year financial results for FY 2012 to the ASX stockmarket.

• WPL first half net profit is US$812 million (AUD$777.67 million) down from US$828 million from the previous corresponding period.
• Underlying net profit was up 4.5 percent to US$865 million (AUD$828.43 million) in the six months to June, up from US$828 million in the previous corresponding period.
• Woodside underlying profit excludes one-off costs associated with the WA Pluto LNG project. The company owns 90 percent of the project.
• Pluto project ran at 80 percent of capacity in its first months of operation, above the forecast 36 percent.
• Target for 2012 production at 77 to 83 million barrels of oil equivalent.
• The 5 year exploration program to expand the $15 billion Pluto LNG has failed to discover sufficient volumes of commercial gas in the waters off Western Australia.
• Pluto has capacity of 4.3 million tonnes of LNG per annum.
• Woodside Petroleum has announced a fully franked dividend of 62.017 cents per share, ex-dividend date of 27/8/2012. Up 18 percent.