BRISBANE (Reuters) – According to proxy votes shown at the company’s annual meeting, Woodside Petroleum’s shareholders approved a merger with BHP Group (NYSE:BHPpetroleum )’s arm on Thursday. This will create a top 10 independent oil and gas producer worth $40 billion that is not part of a bigger company.
More than 97 percent of both direct and proxy votes in favor of the deal were cast.
The merger, which was agreed upon last August, helps the world’s largest mining company, BHP, move away from fossil fuels as it tries to decarbonize. It also doubles Woodside’s (OTC:WOPEY) oil and gas production and gives it more money to grow.
“The merger is an opportunity for Woodside to increase its contribution to the world’s growing energy needs and build the scale, resilience, and diversity it needs to thrive through the energy transition,” Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill told shareholders.
BHP will be paid in Woodside shares, giving BHP investors a 48 percent stake in the merged group, which will have assets in Australia, the US, Mexico, Senegal, and Trinidad.
Even though shareholders supported the merger, they were unhappy with Woodside’s climate plan because it didn’t set goals for reducing Scope 3 emissions, which are the emissions that come from Woodside’s customers.
Nearly 45 percent of the direct and proxy votes at the meeting, which was Woodside’s first advisory vote, were against the climate plan.
Two proxy advisers said that the plan should be voted down.
The microphone was turned off by Woodside Chairman Richard Goyder after a proxy for a shareholder asked if the company’s plans to invest in fossil fuels were “morally crazy, economically crazy, or both.” In response, the chairman said, “Or neither.”
But Goyder said it was clear that the company needs to talk to shareholders more to explain that its plans are in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
O’Neill said that Woodside’s plan for Scope 3 is to give its customers clean products like hydrogen.
