Woodside board pushes back against activist shareholders
The energy giant's reluctance to address gaps in its transition plan is attracting serious investor scrutiny
Woodside Energy Group, the Australian petroleum exploration and production company, is gearing up for its next annual general meeting (AGM).
The AGM, which is scheduled for 28 April, will be held in Perth, in Western Australia.
At the AGM, the company’s management plans to discuss some key issues surrounding the energy giant’s performance and strategy.
Additionally, the AGM - which is scheduled for 28 April in Perth - will include a vote on two shareholder resolutions related to investor engagement on climate change.
Greater transparency
The first seeks to amend the company’s constitution to make way for the second, through which shareholders are demanding greater transparency on the Woodside’s transition plan.
According to the proposed resolution investors are demanding that “the company disclose, in subsequent annual reporting, information that demonstrates how the company’s capital allocation to oil and gas assets will align with a scenario in which global energy emissions reach net zero by 2050."
Company secretary Warren Baillie has stated that the board does not support these resolutions. The board has argued that such an amendment is not in the company’s interests.
The board’s argument is that “this constitutional amendment may disproportionately favour activist shareholders, and not necessarily Woodside’s broader shareholder base."
Regarding the second proposal that demands information on capital allocation, the board has stated, “Woodside does not accept the premise of the resolution that the climate goals of the Paris Agreement require the managing down of its oil and gas production assets and operations”.
This is a line of argument reflected in the company’s latest climate report, where chief executive Meg O’Neill wrote: “As we have seen in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, significant volumes of gas and other fossil fuels cannot simply be removed from our energy systems without consequence."
The company, which merged with BHP’s oil and gas assets in June 2022 has come under increased investor scrutiny for its climate strategy.
According to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative, the company’s decarbonisation plan has significant gaps including a failure to address scope 3 emissions and a lack of commitment for aligning capital allocation with its emission reduction plan.
