Woodside revenue hit by low oil prices

Energy giant Woodside Petroleum has posted a drop in second-quarter revenue and production, hurt by lower oil prices and a planned shut-down at its North West Shelf gas facility.

Sales revenue dropped 16 per cent to $US825 million ($A1.1 billion) for the three months to June 30 from $US982 million in the first quarter of 2016.

Woodside's second quarter production fell 6.3 per cent to 22.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) from 23.7 MMboe in the first quarter.

However, production in the second quarter of 2016 was up 10.4 per cent on the prior corresponding period due to a refurbishment outage at Woodside's Pluto facility the previous year.

Second-quarter sales revenue was down 8.1 per cent from the same period a year earlier, due to lower world oil prices, according to the company.

Chief executive Peter Coleman said on Thursday that the business was performing well in a challenging external environment.

"Lower sales revenue for the quarter largely reflects the three-month lag in oil-linked LNG contract pricing structures," Mr Coleman said in a statement.

Woodside expects to see higher LNG contract prices reflected in the third quarter, he said.

"Our strong operating cash flow and balance sheet will continue to support business growth opportunities."

Cash-rich Woodside has been under pressure from investors over its growth prospects after smaller rival Oil Search spurned its $11.6 billion takeover bid last year.

Woodside last week agreed to buy ConocoPhillips' stake in three deepwater oil blocks off the coast of Senegal for $US350 million.

The stake includes a 35 per cent interest in the SNE deepwater oil discovery - one of the world's most promising oil finds in recent years, as well as the FAN oil discovery.

Weak oil prices forced the company to shelve its $50 billion Browse liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia earlier this year.

Woodside will report its interim earnings results on August 19.