Australia M&A – Woodside pre-empts INPEX’s acquisition of PetroChina’s Browse interest

(Originally posted on June 12, 2026)

Earlier today (12th June 2026), Woodside announced that it had exercised its right to pre-empt the proposed sale of PetroChina’s 10.67% participating interest in the Browse Joint Venture (BJV) to INPEX.

The terms of Woodside’s acquisition will reflect those agreed between PetroChina and INPEX:

• Woodside will pay PetroChina a cash consideration of US$225 million, plus reimbursement of PetroChina’s BJV cash call contributions made between 30 June 2025 and completion.
• In addition, Woodside will pay PetroChina a contingent payment of US$175 million if the Browse Joint Venture takes a final investment decision for the development of the Brecknock, Calliance and Torosa fields on or before 30 June 2032.

Completion remains subject to customary conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals. If completed, and assuming no other joint venture participant pre-empts, Woodside’s interest in the Browse Joint Venture will increase from 30.60% to 41.27%.

The original deal announcement came on 15th May, when INPEX announced that it had entered into a sale and purchase agreement with PetroChina to acquire the latter’s entire 10.67% participating interest in the Browse joint venture. We looked at the original deal here. Since the original announcement, we also saw an announcement that BP had agreed to sell a 5% interest in Browse to South Korea’s GS Energy, which we looked at here.