WPL 2050

Check out this screenshot from CNBC during the week :



Chevron have bought Renewable Energy (REGI) - a biodiesel specialist - at a 40% premium to its share price. They paid over the odds but the market still loved it - marking up Chevron to new all time highs.....and then there’s the news during the week that Shell is pushing deeper into Australia’s power market with a deal to buy a significant stake in wind-farm developer WestWind.

This can’t be escaping Meg’s attention. She is in a position to steer Woodside a few different ways. One is to ride this oil and gas train for all it’s worth - returning the excesses to shareholders for a decade or so. This runs the risk of government interference in the form of new levies and taxes.......because let’s face it .....a company making rude profits from fossil fuels is highly offensive to the majority of the electorate.

Another option is to head the way Chevron and Shell appear to be heading .......cherry picking quality renewables companies and swallowing them up as a means of transitioning. Woodside could do this both here and o/s - and a US listing would make this a whole lot more doable.....and it would certainly curry favour with the ESG fund managers (not that there seems to be the same concern there now as there was only 3 or 4 months ago !) So instead of pretty well exhausting itself by 2050 - Woodside may well have transitioned itself by then into being a global renewable energy powerhouse. Its altogether possible with the rivers of oil and gas cash over the next decade or two ....not a bad legacy if Meg can set Woodside on this path before she moves on.

Anyway .... in the meantime WPL continues to be the ASX Express. Here’s an updated Top 30 table as requested by @sayrex




...and don't forget the 43% gain above ignores the $1.46 dividend just announced ......roll that into the equation and we're just a tick under 50%.