Woodside spent $18 million on property near Lancelin last month, adding to 20,000 hectares landbanked in Western Australia for carbon abatement.
Woodside Energy spent $18 million buying property near Lancelin last month, continuing an acquisition spree that has landbanked 20,000 hectares in Western Australia for carbon abatement.
The oil and gas company bought a parcel of three properties amounting to about 3,500ha around the northern edge of Karakin Lakes, bringing its total of rural WA acquisitions since 2019 to 19,813ha, a portfolio that has cost at least $50 million, according to CoreLogic-RP Data.
All of the WA land identified by Business News is held by subsidiary Woodside Energy Carbon (Services), which has spent $54.4 million since July 2022 on the land purchases. However, some of the land was acquired as early as November 2019 by other Woodside entities.
Excluding profits or losses between various Woodside subsidiaries, the total cost was $49.9 million.
That also excludes at least one deal outside WA, where the subsidiary paid $4.4 million in March this year to buy more than 7,000ha of farmland in south-east NSW.
Woodside confirmed the Karakin acquisition was part of its three-year native reforestation project, which was intended to create biodiverse carbon plantings in WA.
“The project aims to revegetate and restore the land, and we anticipate that the fully grown trees will allow for increased habitat connectivity through restored landscape linkages,” a Woodside spokesperson told Business News.
According to Woodside stakeholder information related in 2021, the project is a part of a broader collaboration with environmental enterprise Greening Australia.
At that point, it had planted about 3,000ha of mixed native vegetation since starting in May 2020.
Woodside has previously moved to allay fears that purchasing agricultural land by resource companies for tree planting would drive up prices for farmland and affect rural populations.
It is understood the land sought is considered unproductive in comparison to farmland in the immediate area and, if needed, can be made available to neighbouring farmers.
The Karakin acquisition in May added to holdings north of Perth that amount to about 11,000ha, mainly around Namban and neighbouring district, with about 2,000ha further east around Kalannie. In the south of the state, Woodside has bought about 3,000ha at Cranbrook and to its east, although it also added almost 200ha in Balingup to its landbank in November.
