Woodside Petroleum (WPL)

  • By Jeff Cartridge

  • June 15, 2015
  • 11:36 am BST

Woodside Petroleum on the ASX Stock Exchange

Access the latest stock market reports on Woodside Petroleum at the bottom of the page.

Is it time to Buy, Sell or Hold Woodside Petroleum stocks?

Woodside petroleum is one of Australia’s largest energy companies with significant interest in the oil and gas exploration fields. Among the main products that Woodside petroleum sells gas and crude oil are the main ones but it also includes liquefied natural gas, natural gas and condensate and liquid petroleum gas. Whilst being some 34% owned by Shell Australia, Woodside petroleum has business spanning Australia, North America, South America and the Middle East.

Woodside petroleum manages the north West shelf venture which is located in North West Australia. This project is one of the top three liquefied natural gas producers in the world with projects covering North Rankin, Goodwyn, Angel and Cossack Pioneer.

Unfortunately with the economic downturn Woodside petroleum has had to cancel or suspend some of its proposed natural gas import projects in the Los Angeles region. Prior to the economic volatility which side had exploration interests all around the world including Brazil, South Korea, Liberia, Algeria, Gulf of Mexico and Sierra Leone.

The stock price of Woodside petroleum has been nothing short of spectacular. With the price of crude oil rocketing from $40 to over $147 a barrel, Woodside saw its share price rise from around $10 in 2003 up to over $70 in early 2008. That is over 700% in five and a bit years.

Whilst this dramatic rise in the share price has been incredible the recent volatility and price of crude oil dropping significantly has seen the share price more than halve in value. From those highs of over $70 the share price is sitting at around $32 as of February 2009. One thing is for sure that we can expect further volatility from this sector and from this stock.

Woodside Petroleum Quick Facts (as of June 2015)

  • Chairman:Mr Michael Alfred Chaney
  • MD/CEO: Mr Michael Abbott
  • Industry Group: Energy
  • Shares on issue: 823,910,657
  • Market Cap: Over $29 Billion
  • www.woodside.com.au

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