Woodside Energy chief executive Meg O’Neill has defended the level of investment the oil and gas producer has earmarked for clean energy and left the door open for raising the spend beyond the $US5 billion ($7.6 billion) targeted by 2030 if returns are high enough.

Asked at a US conference on the proportion of capital expenditure that represented, Ms O’Neill said total investment envisaged on “new energy” – largely hydrogen and ammonia – was less than half of the $US12 billion cost of the Scarborough LNG project that Woodside gave the go-ahead to in 2021.