Woodside confident over fundraising

Oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum insists it will not be forced into asset sales, and believes it can raise funds of up to $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) from the debt markets.

The Australian company, 34%-owned by Royal Dutch Shell, would use proceeds from any divestments to reduce the amount to be raised in debt, chief financial officer Mark Chatterji said today.

Any asset sales will be outside the company's liquefied natural gas-focused areas of Western Australia and the Timor Sea, Woodside said this week. It may sell some assets, is deferring or cutting A$500 million (£224 million) of spending, and will take on more debt to fund its expansion in LNG.

Capital investment is set to jump this year, mostly due to construction of the Pluto LNG project in Western Australia.

"The debt markets have been challenging for everybody," Chatterji said. "We expect our external funding requirement for the year to be in the range of $1 billion to $1.7 billion, but we expect we can source all of that from the debt markets."