WPL Woodside Petroleum Limited

By Robb M. Stewart

PERTH, Australia--The slump in oil and gas prices that has forced energy companies to slash budgets has Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) seeking out additional exploration opportunities.

Chief Executive Peter Coleman said Wednesday that the Australian company planned to expand its footprint around the rim of the Atlantic Ocean.

"This is a point in the cycle when you rebuild acreage positions. This is when exploration acreage around the world is at its cheapest," Mr. Coleman said.

Exploration blocks that were tightly held are now becoming accessible even as energy companies continue to focus on bolstering their balance sheets and cutting costs, he said, adding that it was considerably cheaper to invest in exploration acreage than to develop new production projects.

"Big, heavy capital projects at the moment are not in favor. So putting huge amounts of money into that is probably not the wisest thing to do," he told reporters at the company's headquarters in Perth.

In the past 18 months, Woodside has added exploration opportunities in Nova Scotia and in Ireland, and it has a strong focus on Myanmar, Mr. Coleman said.

In mid-February, Woodside agreed to buy a majority stake in an offshore exploration block covering about 6,700 square kilometers between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, building on recent acquisitions in Cameroon, Gabon and Morocco. Also in February, the company said it had made a second gas discovery in as many months in the Bay of Bengal, about 100 kilometers off the west coast of Myanmar.

Woodside's profit was almost wiped out last year by the slump in oil prices and hefty impairment charges, weighing on its dividend payout, which was cut by 70% for the last half of 2015. Net profit fell 99% to $26 million, squeezed by $1.1 billion in one-off charges, including impairments against the value of its assets.

Woodside and partners including Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC last month plans for the development of a massive floating vessel that would process natural gas, chill it to a liquid and export it.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 13, 2016 06:55 ET (10:55 GMT)

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