News: WPL Australian gas producer Woodside Petroleum half-year profit falls 28%, page-16

I think there's two reasons for this.

1. There are more attractive short term gains to be made in other stocks. Particularly in an environment where retail investing is very high. Energy is not the flavour of the month on the ASX.

2. Investor sentiment is increasingly negative towards big oil and gas companies and trending positively toward green-based investment funds. Naturally investment funds will react by adjusting portfolios that can be marketed to these yuppie investors with years of contributions ahead of them. This is particularly odd for a small open economy like Australia, and even more odd for a country who's third line of their national anthem is "We've golden soil and wealth for toil".

When COVID disappears, Asian oil and gas demand increases at a pace larger than the (soon to be depressed) supply, we'll see interest perk up again in the energy sector led by appreciating commodity prices. We need a political environment that supports this growth rather than seek to tax it in exchange for green swing votes.

Or, Coleman needs to divert his attention toward energy sources that are appealing to greenies. Hence the move to hydrogen. I'd rather we stuck with an LNG play.. but we'll see.

I'm a long hold on WPL and will also be looking for an entrance to STO.