The Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price is marching higher today.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) oil and gas stock closed Friday trading for $34.24. Shares are currently changing hands for $34.61 apiece.
That puts the Woodside share price up 1.1% at the time of writing, while the ASX 200 is down 0.3%.
With oil and gas prices edging lower over the weekend, I suspect Germany and its fellow G7 nations may be offering some tailwinds to Woodside today.
Tailwinds that may continue to blow for some time.
What happened at the G7 meeting with energy demand?
The G7 nations met in Hiroshima on Saturday to discuss a range of pressing global matters.
Amongst those was energy security.
With Europe continuing to ween itself off of Russian energy exports, the continent is finding that renewable sources remain insufficient to keep the lights on at night and the aircon running in summer.
And in what may provide some longer-term support for the Woodside share price, the seven rich nations agreed that increased supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are important.
As Reuters reports, the G7 stated that increasing LNG deliveries are "necessary to accelerate the phase-out of our dependency on Russian energy".
According to a statement from the group:
We stress the important role that increased deliveries of LNG can play, and acknowledge that investment in the sector can be appropriate in response to the current crisis and to address potential gas market shortfalls provoked by the crisis.
While maintaining the goal of reducing global emissions, including highlighting the potential of green hydrogen, the G7 stated:
In the exceptional circumstance of accelerating the phase out of our dependency on Russian energy, publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response.
Though they conveniently failed to mention how long this "temporary" public investment in gas projects might be.
As you'd expect, climate activists were less than pleased with the development.
But Germany doubled down on the need for more gas. And in potentially other good news for the outlook of the Woodside share price, added that the nation will be building new gas power plants.
"We also need some new gas power station, but they should be built in a way that they can run on green hydrogen later on as well. So it is an investment in the clean future as well," a German government official said (quoted by Reuters).
Woodside share price snapshot
The Woodside share price has been a strong outperformer over the past 12 months, gaining 20%.
