Woodside Petroleum is speeding up its cost cutting program after already slashing 600 jobs, but says it will also invest in growth ahead of a major decision on its key Browse project.
Chief executive Peter Coleman has told investors in Melbourne the company is committed to a "structural cost change" as it accelerates its cost reduction program.
Woodside is targeting $680 million of savings, and is "ahead of the curve with controlled re-structuring," Mr Coleman said in a slide presentation.
Around 600 full time jobs have been shed by Woodside since January 2014, which equates to around 20 per cent of the organisation's workforce.
A productivity program is on track to deliver $800 million of benefits by the end 2016, with $580 million of benefits already realised.
Earlier this year it announced it was cutting its 2015 operating expenditure by around 15 per cent.
Mr Coleman also said the energy giant remained on track for a mid-2015 decision on whether to start engineering and design work on Browse, while a final investment decision is due in the second half of 2016.
Woodside's proposed front-end engineering and design entry into Browse was based on a robust business case in the "current environment", Mr Coleman said.
Lower oil prices had also created potential merger and acquisition opportunities in the near term, and reduced costs on some projects such as Browse.
Woodside still had flexibility in its balance sheet to invest in growth, Mr Coleman said.
The Perth-based oil and gas producer 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.
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