• Woodside’s US$2 Billion Cash Conundrum

By Ross Kelly

As a hole opens in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s oil and gas production outlook, the case is building for management to pull off a big acquisition or return some of its cash pile to shareholders.

Or it could do both.

That’s the view of Citigroup analyst Mark Greenwood, who says Australia’s second-biggest oil company after BHP Billiton Ltd. could afford to launch a US$1 billion buyback of its own shares–even if it spends another US$1 billion buying a new asset.

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Woodside would make a nice minor stakeholder in Gulf LNG