Australia's Woodside Energy said on Wednesday it would review its business to simplify operations and improve accountability, as stronger realised prices helped first-quarter revenue beat expectations despite cyclone-related disruptions.
Shares of the firm were up as much as 1.8% to A$32.97 by 0031 GMT, hitting their highest level since April 17.
CEO Liz Westcott said the review was expected to strengthen organisational effectiveness and capital management while maintaining safety, execution, and operational reliability.
"The market will look for at least mid-single-digit efficiency gains to validate the review, implying roughly $100-200 million per annum given Woodside's operating and corporate cost base," said Marc Jocum, a senior product and investment strategist at GlobalXETFs.
Woodside's operating revenue fell 1.6% to $3.26 billion in the quarter, but came in ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $3.05 billion.
Quarterly output dropped to 45.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), from 49.1 MMboe a year earlier, after a powerful tropical cyclone last month in Western Australia disrupted operations at the Karratha gas plant, the onshore processing hub for the North West Shelf.
Woodside maintained its annual production volumes forecast of 172-186 MMboe.
Average realised price for the firm rose to $63 per barrel of oil equivalent in the three months ended March 31, from $57 in the previous quarter, supported by elevated spot prices.
"Further benefits of currently higher spot prices will be realised in subsequent quarters for LNG due to lagged contract pricing," Westcott said.
The company also said its Louisiana LNG project continued to draw strong interest from high-quality counterparties, supporting its sell-down process.
(Reuters - Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri and Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Subhranshu Sahu and Rashmi Aich)