Environment and biodiversity

We aim to achieve this by adopting a risk based approach that allows us to address the environmental impacts and risks associated with our activities in a consistent way. This allows us to focus our effort and resources on the most significant risks associated with our activities no matter where we operate.

We regularly reassess environmental impacts and risks of operations across our global portfolio, at the activity level. This provides the opportunity to incorporate new scientific knowledge and improved environmental impact assessment processes and management approaches with the aim of improving environmental outcomes.

A key mitigation focus is the prevention of hydrocarbon spills. Our hydrocarbon spill preparedness and response framework continue to be a focus across the company’s global portfolio. The approach is underpinned by a comprehensive process informed by international best practice conventions. These require all activities to assess to the marine environment, evaluate surface and subsea response options, and recommend appropriate response techniques. These activity specific plans are supplemented by corporate plans, regional equipment and locally trained resources.

In addition, strong external partnerships with government and non-government organisations to collect and analyse environmental scientific knowledge, underpin our approach to avoiding or minimising our environmental impacts. A focus of the risk-based process is to consider the key values of the environment, such as protected areas, threatened and migratory species, and a component of robust impact assessment is to evaluate activities against the relevant management plans for habitats and species.

More broadly, Woodside recognises the intrinsic value of nature and the importance of conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services to support the sustainable development of our society. Under Woodside’s Environment and Biodiversity Policy we have committed to supporting a biodiversity positive program that has measurable biodiversity positive outcomes in the regions and areas in which we undertake activities. This commitment builds on our ongoing collaborative work with science-based organisations and local communities which contribute to environmental and social outcomes. We continue to scope and implement a range of biodiversity restoration projects in regions in which we operate.

Woodside recognises that methods to measure and certify biodiversity outcomes are still evolving and in 2025 we plan to implement a globally accepted certification standard. We also recognise that there has been an evolution of agreements, standards and reporting for nature and biodiversity, specifically with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework¹ the release of the TNFD recommendations and the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and associated European Sustainability Reporting Standards. We continue to monitor these and other emerging regulatory requirements and look to understand the implications to our business.

The events classified as hazardous non-hydrocarbon contained mostly non-hazardous chemicals as assessed against the Offshore Chemical Notification Scheme (OCNS, UK), however, due to some trace elements present, they were considered hazardous by Woodside under local regulatory approvals. To uphold our commitment to minimising impacts and risks, we have updated and integrated our hydrocarbon spill preparedness and response framework across our global operations and activities. This approach allows us to effectively assess and manage spill risks to the marine environment in alignment with our environmental principles.

In 2024, we developed new oil pollution emergency plans that contributed to regulatory acceptance of 11 environmental approvals across our Australian assets. Additionally, we implemented training and capability-building programs in the regions where we operate. Our collaboration with regional and international industry groups remains a priority, enabling us to proactively address and monitor emerging risks.

Since December 2022, Woodside committed to supporting biodiversity outcomes in the regions in which we operate. Biodiversity positive projects are intended to result in a measurable outcome to a local species, habitat or ecological process. In 2024, we focused on expanding our biodiversity programs in Western Australia. We are undertaking biodiversity assessments and monitoring on several of our carbon origination projects in Western Australia and have commenced implementing additional measures to improve biodiversity outcomes.

We continue to invest in science to support better environmental performance and outcomes. This science may be used to support the baseline or monitoring requirements associated with current and future environmental approvals. In 2024, we specifically focused on the management of underwater noise and artificial light. In addition, we conducted regional studies on key marine habitats and species in Australia’s northwest. These studies included extensive research on nearshore and offshore reefs, as well as on important migratory species such as pygmy blue whales, turtles, and shorebirds. In 2024, 18³ scientific articles were published in international journals highlighting the findings of research undertaken by our research partnerships and supported by Woodside.

In 2024, we complied with our Environment and Biodiversity Policy principles which include net zero deforestation across our global business, and our global activities were outside the boundaries of natural sites on the UNESCO World Heritage Areas. In addition, in areas where we operated within International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Protected Areas, our activities were aligned with the existing management plans for those regions. We also finalised our Biodiversity Management Plan Guidance, a key component of our Environment and Biodiversity Policy. In 2024, we contributed to Ipieca’s feedback on the TNFD’s draft Oil and Gas Sector Guidance. We actively participated in the Australian Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) Nature Working Group in 2024, including the rollout of the NatSTART tool and involvement in a number of CLC Nature Catalyst sessions.⁴

With increasing awareness of the impact of business activities on biodiversity, we have engaged further with peers and industry bodies to understand leading approaches to reinforce our biodiversity and broader environmental management.

We do this by adopting a risk based approach that allows us to address the environmental impacts and risks associated with our activities in a consistent manner. It allows us to focus our effort and resources on the most significant risks associated with our activities no matter where we operate.

Woodside recognises that risk is inherent to our business and effectively managing risk is vital to delivering on company objectives, success and continued growth. Woodside is committed to managing our risks proactively and effectively. The objective of Woodside’s risk management system is to provide a consistent process for recognising and managing risks across the business.

Our environmental risk management methodology has been informed by the International Standard ISO 31000 for risk management. This provides a framework to demonstrate that the risks and impacts are continually identified, reduced to a level that is considered as low as reasonably practicable and assessed such that impacts of an activity are at a level we consider to be acceptable. This approach means we can identify potential ways to eliminate or avoid an impact before we consider ways of reducing or minimising it.

We regularly reassess environmental impacts and risks of operations across our portfolio, at the activity level. This provides the opportunity to incorporate new scientific knowledge and improved environmental impact assessment processes and management approaches with the aim of improving environmental outcomes.

To support the risk assessment process and Woodside’s determination of acceptability, our health, safety and environment risk management procedures include the use of a decision support framework based on principles set out in the Guidance on Risk Related Decision Making (Oil and Gas UK 2014). This is to confirm activities do not pose an unacceptable environmental risk per our risk framework. In addition, appropriate focus is placed on activities where the impact or risk is anticipated to be acceptable and demonstrated to be as low as reasonably practicable.

Strong external partnerships with government and non-government organisations to collect and analyse environmental knowledge, underpins our approach to avoiding or minimising our environmental impacts. A key focus of the risk-based process undertaken for environmental impacts is defined under the relevant environmental legislation. This includes consideration of the key values of the environment, such as protected areas, threatened and migratory species, and a component of robust impact assessment is to evaluate activities against the relevant management plans for habitats and species.

The Woodside Environment and Biodiversity Policy objective recognises the intrinsic value of nature and the importance of conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services to support the sustainable development of our society. Under Woodside’s Environment and Biodiversity Policy we have committed to supporting biodiversity positive programs that have measurable biodiversity outcomes in the regions and areas in which we undertake activities. This commitment builds on our ongoing work with organisations and local communities to contribute to positive environmental and social outcomes.

In 2024, we planted approximately 3.2 million biodiverse seedlings in Western Australia as part of our Native Reforestation Project across approximately 4,800 hectares of land at Woodside owned properties. This brings our biodiverse carbon plantings in Australia to a total of approximately 8.9 million biodiverse seedlings planted across approximately 13,000 hectares of land in Western Australia.

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