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Woodside Petroleum Limited is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. It is a public company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is based in Perth Western Australia

Woodside operates a number of offshore wells in the North West Shelf, a huge new oil and gas field off the north-western coast of Western Australia, and is conducting exploration in a number of other areas off Western Australia and Victoria. In the United States, it is currently exploring several fields in the Gulf of Mexico. It operates a number of oil and gas fields off the coast of Mauritania, most notably the Chinguetti deposit and is a partner in fields in Algeria. Woodside also holds exploration interests in Kenya, Libya, Sierra Leone, the Canary Islands. The company employs around 3500 staff, and had a net profit after tax of 1037 million AUD on revenues of 2,746 million AUD in 2005. It has a market capitalisation of more than A$26 billion.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2006, the Mauritanian government led by Ely Ould Mohamed Vall denounced amendments to an oil contract made by former authoritarian leader Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya with Woodside Petroleum. In 2004, Woodside had agreed to investing US$ 600 million in developing Mauritania's Chinguetti offshore oil project. The controversed amendments, which Mauritanian authorities declared that they had been signed "outside the legal framework of normal practice, to the great detriment of our country", could cost Mauritania up to $200 million a year, according to BBC News.^[1]

The Australian Federal Police in June 2006 were investigating Woodside for allegations of bribery and corruption in Mauritania according to the Sydney Morning Herald ^{[2] [3]}

Woodside Petroleum is currently attempting to have some ancient petroglyphs, or rock art, moved from the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia to access a natural gas supply there. ^{[4] [5]}

1. ^ "Mauritania and firm row over oil", BBC News, February 6, 2006."Crise ouverte avec la compagnie pétrolière Woodside", Radio France International, February 6, 2006.
2. ^ News story on prosecution
3. ^ Sydney Morning Herald - Business report
4. ^ Dampier Rock Art home-page
5. ^ Australian Heritage Database

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