By Himanshi Akhand and Lewis Jackson

(Reuters) – Australian company Woodside Energy reported a 14 percent drop in its half-year profit on Tuesday due to lower oil prices. However, earnings and dividends were better than the market expected, so the share price rose 4 percent.

Chief Executive Meg O’Neill said there had been strong interest in the proposed sale of shares in Driftwood, a U.S. liquefied natural gas export project that Woodside will own when it buys U.S. LNG developer Tellurian for $1.2 billion including debt.

“We’re looking for companies that can help us with gas supply, we’re looking for companies that are interested in off-take, and we’re looking for companies that might just be interested in the infrastructure elements of the plant,” he said.

Woodside is seeking firm commitments for share sales, if not signed contracts, before making a final investment decision in the first quarter of 2025, she added.

For the six-month period ended June 30, the company reported adjusted after-tax net income of $1.63 billion, comfortably beating Visible Alpha’s consensus estimate of $1.38 billion.

The company’s shares jumped, closing 4.1% higher in afternoon trading.

The drop in profits was mainly due to lower oil prices; Woodside’s average realized price fell from $74 in the same period last year to $63 per barrel of oil equivalent.

Woodside also announced an interim dividend of 69 cents per share, compared with 80 cents a year earlier. This represents 80 percent of underlying net profit after tax. The company had announced a payout range of 50 to 80 percent, and the market had expected a payout of 55 cents.

(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)