Woodside hit by glut

PLUNGING oil and gas prices have almost halved giant Woodside’s revenue. Sales revenue of $ US898 million in the three months to June was down 47 per cent from $ US1.68 billion a year ago, mainly due to plummeting prices for liquefied natural gas. The company’s production of LNG was also lower than a year ago, due to planned outages at its Pluto plant situated off the coast of Western Australia. LNG prices are linked to crude oil prices, which dived sharply in late 2014 due to an oversupply in the market, driven by US shale oil production and the OPEC cartel’s refusal to cut supply.