The Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price has crashed deep into the red on Thursday morning.
In early trade, the energy producer's shares are down 7.5% to $31.43.
This compares unfavourably to the ASX 200 index, which is up 0.5% at the time of writing.
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Why is the Woodside share price crashing?
There have been a couple of catalysts for the weakness in the Woodside share price on Thursday.
The first is a very poor night of trade for oil prices. Both Brent and WTI crude oil prices sank over 5% to seven-month lows amid concerns over recession risks and the release of downbeat Chinese trade data.
Fellow energy producers Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) are also dropping on the news.
What else?
Also weighing particularly heavily on the Woodside share price is its upcoming dividend payment.
Last month, the company released its half year results and reported a huge increase in its earnings. This allowed the Woodside board to reward its shareholders handsomely with a big dividend hike.
For the half, Woodside declared a US$1.09 per share interim dividend, up from 30 US cents per share a year earlier. This equated to A$1.58 per share based on the exchange rates at the time and represented a 4.6% dividend yield at yesterday's close price.
This morning, Woodside's shares have traded ex-dividend for this interim payout. This means that the rights to the dividend payment now remain with the seller and won't transfer to buyers of its shares between now and the payment date.
In light of this, the Woodside share price has dropped to reflect this. After all, if you were buying shares you wouldn't want to pay for something you won't receive.
Eligible shareholders can now look forward to receiving this dividend in just under a month on 6 October.
