The Woodside Petroleum Ltd (ASX: WPL) share price is moving lower today after the oil and gas producer released its FY21 first-quarter report.
At the time of writing, the Woodside share price is trading 1.30% lower to $22.70 per share.
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Quarterly result details
Woodside delivered its financial and operational information for the quarter ended 31 March 2021. The oil and gas producer prefaced its results with impacts from heavy weather conditions. Although, this was offset by an increase in oil prices over the quarter.
Woodside produced 23.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) during the quarter, 2% lower than its production in Q1 2020. Despite the impact on production, Woodside achieved a 22% increase in revenue quarter-over-quarter to $1.166 billion. An increase in the price of oil as economies continue to bounce back from COVID-19. This is to thanks to strong sales.
The company's dampened production sticks out like a sore thumb with Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) releasing its quarterly report as well this morning. Woodside's smaller competitor managed to increase its production by 39% from Q1 2020. Actually exceeding Woodside's production with 24.9 million barrels.
Funnily enough, the Woodside share price is down slightly more than Santos at midday.
The oil and gas giant also reported ramping up the development of further projects. Key contractors on the Scarborough offshore gas resource accelerated engineering and procurement activity. This is in preparation for the final investment decision in the second half of 2021.
CEO commentary
Today's result also marks the first for Ms. Meg O'Neill as Acting CEO. The change came with former CEO, Peter Coleman announcing his retirement. Ms. O'Neill provided some commentary on Woodside's update:
Woodside achieved record spot LNG prices and its highest price premium for an oil cargo during the period. More importantly, the sustained increase in oil and gas prices reflects the rebound in demand as economic conditions improved across Asia. The swift rebalancing of markets after the disruptions of 2020 further underpins our positive outlook for LNG in the medium term.
During the quarter, Woodside also entered a memorandum of understanding with the State of Tasmania. This partnership was in support of the company's proposed hydrogen production facility at Bell Bay. O'Neill added, "H2TAS is the subject of an application under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency funding round expected to be finalised in coming weeks."
Woodside share price recap
The Woodside share price has navigated the last unprecedented 18 months carefully. As travel begins to return, such as the trans-tasman bubble, demand for oil is picking back up. The glimmer of a brighter future has helped the company's share price rebound 15.7% over the last year.
Despite this, the Woodside share price has dropped 17% since 20 January. The near-term concerns circulate as US supply adds to demand concerns.
