Article on Petro Australia - CubaFormer Woodside Energy boss...

Article on Petro Australia - Cuba
Former Woodside Energy boss emerges at oil float hopeful | The West Australian

Former Woodside Energy bossemerges at oil float hopeful

Sean SmithThe West Australian

Mon, 9 June 2025 4:32PM

Sean Smith

Shiva McMahon ran Woodside Energy’s internationaloperations for two years.

WoodsideEnergy’s former international boss has emerged at float hopeful Petro AustralisEnergy as it aims for a major initial public offer at the end of the year.

ShivaMcMahon has quietly surfaced at Petro Australis as chief executive, withcorporate filings showing she also became a director of the Craig Burton-backedoil play’s board six weeks ago.

Theappointment puts her in line to play a guiding management role in the company’sproposed float, alongside its founders, managing director Saxon Palmer andexecutive director Laurie Brown.

Ms McMahonhas spent more than 30 years in senior roles in the energy sector, principallywith BP, BHP and Woodside.

Havingjoined Woodside in its takeover of BHP Petroleum in mid-2022, she departed thecompany nearly a year ago after two years running its international businessout of Houston, including operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad andTobago, Canada, and Senegal.

Mr Burton,Petro Australis’ chair and major shareholder, said the company had beenfortunate to lure Ms McMahon, who had been “seeking a fresh challenge” afterWoodside.

“She’s agreat addition and it’s a testament to the quality of our project,” Mr Burtonsaid.

Thecompany, which raised $24 million from a pre-IPO funding round in June 2024 viaan issue of preference shares, is focused on the development of an onshore oilfield in Cuba previously owned by the country’s government.

It hadaimed to float via an IPO raising of at least $50m by mid-year. However, thattimetable has been pushed back, firstly by the volatile equity markets of a fewmonths back, and then by a longer-than-expected workover of the partiallydeveloped Pina field, brought on line more than 20 years ago and secured by thecompany from Cuba in 2018.

Last year’sequity raising has funded the drilling of three wells aimed at rejuvenatingproduction from Pina and giving Petro Australis a better picture of the fieldahead of the IPO.

While thewells have been drilled, Petro Australis is still preparing them forproduction.

Onceflowing, the new wells are expected to produce between 1000 and 1500 barrels aday, but the company sees the potential for hundreds of more wells.

While oilis spurned by some investors because of environmental concerns, demand for thefossil fuel is still rising.

In Cuba, itis an important part of the country’s struggling economy, which is battling tothrow off the after-effects of the pandemic and labouring under tighter USsanctions under Donald Trump’s second presidency.