Woodside reinvested more than $20 million into Western Australian communities in 2023 as the company ramped up efforts to combat vocal criticism of its multibillion dollar gas projects.
The WA oil and gas firm in 2023 laid out $20.02m on community investment in the state and an additional $3.25m on mandatory contributions.
That figure is up from $17.5m in 2022.
A Woodside spokesperson said investments focused on environment, cultural heritage, education, wellbeing and community identity.
In 2022 that translated to funds for the Karratha Stars Foundation, Leeuwin Ocean Adventures, Volunteering WA, Surf Life Saving Western Australia, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and Roebourne’s Ieramugadu general store.
The community investment comes amid a backdrop of increasingly antagonistic protests against Woodside’s $16.5 billion Scarborough LNG project.
Last year those protests turned personal when a small group – filmed by ABC’s Four Corners – targeted chief executive Meg O’Neill’s home.
Woodside committed in 2022 to spending $65 million over five years on community development in regional WA.
Woodside is the third largest corporate investor in Western Australia canvassed in Business News’ first magazine for 2024 due out next week, behind BHP ($44m) and Rio Tinto ($41m in 2022).
Other multi-million-dollar contributors on the magazine’s list included Fortescue, Northern Star and Newmont.
Mineral Resources and Chevron were not included on the list but also sit among WA’s largest community funders.
Mineral Resources spent $7.5m nationwide on social investment in FY2022-23, up from $1.4m five years prior.
Speaking to Business News for next week’s magazine, Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said investment from the sector was often led by employees on the ground.
“Our team members who are part of the schools, part of the local P&Cs, volunteer at the sporting arenas, the contributions have come out of that space,” she said.
“When you live in a community you want it to be strong, and you want to be able to ensure that it has all of the assets and all of the infrastructure, that it has great opportunities for local people.
“For all of our companies, that is a really important part of how we ensure that we have a prosperous business community, because if the community does well, so do the businesses around it.”
