Petroleum and fossil fuel producer Woodside’s directors have many questions coming in from its shareholders about the company’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and its controversial Scarborough gas project during a shareholders’ meeting in Perth.
The company has to make a final decision on whether to commit to Scarborough in the second half of the year but is also in the process of recruiting a new chief executive to replace Peter Coleman – raising concerns among shareholders about the process.
Major Shareholders Disappointed
Coleman is set to retire in June after ten years as CEO. In February, the company was forced to backpedal after he told the Energy News Bulletin that the coup leaders in Myanmar, where Woodside was testing fuel, felt “they weren’t being heard” and “were pushed up against a difficult decision point” before seizing power in a bloody coup that has so far cost more than 700 lives.
Chairman Richard Goyder told a meeting on Thursday that one of Woodside’s major shareholders had told him that it was not comtent with the company’s gas-fired intentions, which do not include the scope 3 emissions produced by its customers, and as a result will vote against and not re-elect the director.
The company says it intends to roll out zero net emissions by 2050 and will have more to say about the release of scope 3 next year.
Woodside Remains Committed To The Paris Agreement
“It’s up to shareholders if they want to divest at any time,” Goyder said.
He said the company was committed to the Paris agreement, which aims to lower global temperatures below 1.5C and rejected a proposal from Julien Vincent, the lead campaigner for shareholder activist group Market Forces, that Woodside’s internal projections were based on heating of 3c.
“It’s like saying you’re a fan of the Dockers and you get a membership of the Eagles,” Vincent said at the meeting.
Goyder said the Paris agreement has many different conditions.
“Most cases see an increase in gas,” he said.
New Chief Executive
In a report released this month, the environmental group Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said the Scarborough project, which is 73.5% owned by Woodside and 26.5% of BHP, is more expensive compared to the competition in Qatar, and is at risk of costly carbon tariffs by Europeans and and the US.
Goyder said a new Chief Executive would be appointed before a final decision was made on whether to invest in the project.
“That will give the next CEO time to look at the proposal, because they will stay with it for a long time, but it will not delay the process,” he said.
He played down differences between forecasts made by the company’s chief economist and what a shareholder said were more optimistic projections made by Coleman.
“Both the chief economist and Peter will be wrong,” he said.
“The Woodside board takes into account a range of forecasts.
“Scarborough is a robust project, under most circumstances.”
