ASX energy shares have been hot stocks for a couple of years now, with several tailwinds driving share price growth, profit growth and higher dividends.
This has been a welcome change for income investors, who have traditionally had to rely predominantly on ASX mining shares and ASX bank shares to deliver the best passive income.
So, which major ASX energy share is set to pay the highest ASX dividend in FY24?
Which ASX energy share will pay the most in FY24?
For the purposes of this article, we're looking at major ASX energy shares only.
We're defining 'major' energy stocks as those with market caps above $2 billion.
That means they're either mid-caps ($2 billion to $10 billion) or large-caps ($10 billion and above).
There are 9 ASX energy shares that fit this criteria.
However, we've excluded the smallest one — ASX uranium share Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) — because it doesn't currently pay dividends.
Here are the ASX dividend consensus forecasts as published on CommSec today.
ASX dividends: What the big energy producers will pay in FY24
| ASX energy share | Dividend yield | Forecast |
| Yancoal Australia Ltd (ASX: YAL) | 21.2% | 105 cents |
| New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX: NHC) | 11.4% | 60 cents |
| Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) | 10.2% | 320 cents |
| Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX: VEA) | 8.4% | 26 cents |
| Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) | 6.9% | 48 cents |
| Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD) | 5.4% | 186 cents |
| Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) | 3% | 22 cents |
| Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) | 2.7% | 4 cents |
Yancoal shares to pay the most
That 21% dividend yield is standing out like a sore thumb.
There's got to be a catch, right?
My colleague Tony examined this in an article last month.
He points out that Yancoal has an inconsistent history on ASX dividends and he reckons that may be the catch.
In 2023, the ASX coal share paid a $1.07 annual dividend.
In 2022, Yancoal shares paid an annual dividend of $1.23.
The stock paid no dividend at all in 2021 and a single dividend of 21.2 cents in 2020. In 2019, it paid an annual dividend of 38.9 cents. In 2018, it paid a single dividend of 3 cents.
Are ASX energy shares usurping mining and banking on dividends?
We recently pitted ASX mining shares against ASX bank stocks to see which would pay the better dividends in FY24 based on forecasts published on CommSec.
Of the 14 mining and banking stocks we canvassed, only one of them paid a dividend yield higher than the top five ASX energy shares above.
Food for thought.
