Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) shares are trading in the red again on Wednesday. At the time of writing the shares are down 1.77% for the day, to $23.56 a piece.
It's been a rocky year for the Australian petroleum exploration and production company, with its shares fluctuating between $27.30 and $18.61. Over the past month, the shares are 10.97% lower and for the year-to-date they're down 5.61%.
Dwindling oil prices dampened Woodside's performance potential throughout most of the year, but the company's share price pushed higher on the back of a steep uptick in the crude oil price in late October. It climbed nearly-20% over a 4-week period.
Today's share price slump is likely due to a sharp overnight decline of global oil prices.
The Brent crude oil is trading at near five-year lows, down 2.7% overnight to US$58.92 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at its lowest levels since February 2021, at around US$55.27 per barrel.
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What about Woodside's plan for 2026?
In October, the company reported a 3% increase in quarterly revenue to $3.359 billion and a 1% rise in production to 50.8 MMboe, highlighted by strong performances from its Sangomar and Pluto LNG assets.
It also upgraded its full-year production guidance to 192–197 MMboe, progressing key projects like Scarborough and Beaumont New Ammonia, and completed a significant asset sale worth A$259 million.
In 2026, Woodside plans to progress its pipeline of global projects, with the Scarborough and Trion energy projects advancing on schedule. The company is focused on delivering first LNG from Scarborough in 2026 and first ammonia from Beaumont later in 2025.
What next for Woodside shares?
Analysts seem to be relatively optimistic about the outlook for Woodside shares over the next 12 months.
TradingView data shows that 7 out of 15 analysts have a buy or strong buy rating on the shares. The remaining 8 have a hold rating. The maximum target price is $33.44, which represents a potential 42.33% upside for investors over the next 12 months. With potential upside like that, I wouldn't be selling up Woodside shares anytime soon.
Morgans has a buy rating on Woodside with a share price target of $30.50. The broker said the oil producer's Scarborough, Sangomar and Trion sites are all tracking on time and budget.
Last month, Fairmont Equities' Michael Gable said he thinks Woodside shares are at, or close to, the bottom. He added that he is seeing signs of it starting to move higher again. Although the broker currently has a hold rating on the shares.
