Australia's Woodside searching for silver lining

Australian energy company Woodside said its short-term financial trends were under pressure, but had largely outperformed metrics year-on-year.

Woodside, Australia's largest independent oil and natural gas company, warned in February that its financial position was under threat from lower energy prices. It said Wednesday that first quarter sales revenue was 11 percent lower than fourth quarter 2015 and 30 percent lower year-on-year, largely reflecting lower oil and natural gas prices worldwide.

CEO Peter Coleman said his company was working to position itself as a low-cost operator in order to remain competitive.

"We are taking advantage of market conditions and applying latest technology to reduce life cycle costs further enhancing our position as a low cost operator," Coleman said in a statement.

Crude oil prices are under pressure because weak global economic growth means demand is overshadowed by strong production levels. Woodside said its total production during the first quarter was 4.8 percent lower than the previous quarter, but 8.7 higher year-on-year.

Woodside said last month that, even with front-end engineering and design work completed, weak economic and market conditions meant it was necessary to put a hold on the $50 billion Browse LNG facility.

Coleman at the time said discipline was needed in the era of lower crude oil prices, with patience trumping short-term growth ambitions. The company said Wednesday it was committed to finding a way to continue with the development of the Browse project and was looking forward to next year, when it expected to advance the first batch of LNG from its Wheatstone project.

Woodside said much of its production growth this year will come from its own Pluto LNG project in Australia.