WOODSIDE Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte’s appointment to a federal business roundtable on climate change shapes as a fitting podium for the outspoken Nebraskan in his final year at the helm of Australia’s premier gas company.
WOODSIDE Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte’s appointment to a federal business roundtable on climate change shapes as a fitting podium for the outspoken Nebraskan in his final year at the helm of Australia’s premier gas company.
Mr Voelte finally put an end to long-running speculation about his reign at Woodside last week, announcing that he would retire in the second half of next year once a suitable successor had been identified.
Often dubbed brash for his willingness to publicly challenge Woodside’s competitors and aggressively engage in political debate on issues affecting its activities, Mr Voelte will have an important last opportunity to shape Canberra’s response to one of the most critical issues facing Australian industry.
Mr Voelte was a leading critic of Kevin Rudd’s initial emissions trading scheme, lambasting it as a threat to the global competitiveness of Australian LNG exporters, which also failed to recognise LNG’s major contribution to cutting the emissions of customer countries.
His persistence and willingness to take Canberra on was pivotal in securing significant protections for the LNG industry in the final design of the now-dumped emissions trading scheme.
Mr Voelte subsequently credited the Rudd government for giving the industry a “good hearing” and designing a scheme that LNG producers could “live with”.
With the prospect of a carbon tax now looking increasingly likely under the current Greens-backed minority government of Julia Gillard, Mr Voelte will be seen as a key player in ensuring that the interests of LNG producers are again protected.
If he can again help chart a course around the worst pitfalls for industry posed by pricing carbon, it will add further gloss to his six-year transformation of Woodside into one of the world’s premier independent producers of LNG.
Under Mr Voelte, Woodside has grown from sleepy operator of the North West Shelf with an ad-hoc suite of marginal international projects to the world’s fastest growing LNG producer with unrivalled assets in Western Australia.
Over the same period, Woodside’s share price has more than doubled despite the shocks of the global financial crisis.
Mr Voelte’s drive has been pivotal to Woodside’s world record breaking development schedule at the $13 billion Pluto LNG project, which will start production less than six years after its discovery early next year.
His drive was also key to the federal government backing Woodside’s development strategy for the $30 billion Browse LNG venture in the Kimberley and forcing its wavering international partners to toe Woodside’s line.
Announcing his retirement last week, Mr Voelte said next year was the logical time to pass on the baton, coming between the looming start-up of Pluto and the expected sanction of the massive Browse and Sunrise LNG projects.
Though he still hopes to sign off on the first expansion of the Pluto project before he leaves, Mr Voelte said it was vital that the incoming CEO had the opportunity to “own” the Browse and Sunrise projects as they enter their most critical phase.
