Beach Energy’s new chief executive, Brett Woods, has put exploration drilling in the Cooper Basin on ice and dropped a carbon capture project in a precursor to a major strategic review he expects will turn around performance at the underperforming oil and gas producer.

Mr Woods, who joined Beach late last month from Santos, is under pressure from Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group Holdings to lift the performance of the mid-cap producer, which slumped to a big loss in the first half. Job losses were likely, he signalled.