Woodside Petroleum warns a long downturn in oil prices will cut profits and shareholder payouts, but insists the company is set to grow.
Australia's largest oil and gas producer is planning for the current price weakness to last several years.
It also expects to continue to deliver 80 per cent of its underlying profit to shareholders through dividends, subject to new investments or changes in the business environment.
"Of course with lower oil prices, our profits and dividends will also be lower," Chairman Michael Chaney told the company's annual general meeting.
Chief executive Peter Coleman said Woodside has a good growth profile, with volumes expected to increase over the next five to ten years due to recent acquisitions.
"What I've got in front of me is arguably a much better set of growth options than we had a few years ago, but we want to make it even better," Mr Coleman told reporters after the meeting.
"We're still looking at merger and acquisition opportunities and we'll see what falls out over the next 12 months."
Woodside recently paid $US2.82 billion ($A3.71 billion) for a series of liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets in Western Australia and Canada from US energy giant Apache Corporation.
Mr Coleman said Woodside was in a good position to pick up assets during the energy industry's downturn, but said Shell's recent STG47 billion deal to buy BG showed quality assets were not cheap.
"Maybe world class assets become appropriately priced," he said.
The Browse floating LNG (FLNG) joint venture project, the company's main growth prospect, was still "front of mind" for partner Shell as the parties worked to bring down costs to reflect current pricing, Mr Coleman said.
Shell holds a 13 per cent stake in Woodside and is building the world's first FLNG project, Prelude, to be used off Western Australia.
Woodside hopes to make a final decision on Browse next year once Prelude is in the field.
It also confirmed it was not in negotiations with Shell for the sale of its remaining stake, amid weaker oil prices and a lower Australian dollar.
Oil prices fell 60 per cent in the second half of 2014 and currently sit at around half the price they were nine months ago, at just above $US50 per barrel.
Woodside shares closed seven cents higher at $35.48.
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