Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
Melbourne-headquartered global miner BHP's most important asset is its Pilbara iron ore operation. It mothballed its WA nickel mining and refining business in 2024.
Battery-electric locomotive deliveries to all the big Pilbara iron ore miners are running late as heavy long-distance loads prove a technical challenge.
Australia's largest export has a problem - its low grade and high impurities make it unsuitable for producing low emissions iron and steel with current technology
Offshore regulator NOPSEMA has had enough of BHP's "limited action" and ordered the decommissioning of three fields, adding to the cleanup bill heading towards Woodside shareholders.
Woodside and BHP have responded to the energy transition by heading in opposite directions. Here are 13 takeaways about Woodside's future. They will need some luck.
If Woodside absorbs BHP's oil & gas assets new laws ensure the massive decommissioning liability falls to one of the companies, not the Australian taxpayer, unlike the Northern Endeavour.
BHP and Woodside are negotiating the complete transfer of BHP oil and gas assets in exchange for Woodside shares, but the deal is not done, indicating last-minute brinksmanship across the negotiation table.
Buying BHP’s Australian oil and gas assets could allow Woodside to escape its lost decade, but its shareholders and Australian taxpayers should count their fingers after the handshake.
WA's iron ore miners must develop wind power and drop decades of rivalry to share transmission networks to meet their emissions reduction targets, according to Alinta Energy.
BHP's climate target excludes the Bass Strait, North West Shelf and future Scarborough LNG on the incorrect basis that the operator controls the emissions, not the joint owners.
