The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Antony Currie

MELBOURNE, June 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The $574 bln oil major may have eyed Australia’s Woodside and other producers in Asia. A purchase might work if the region really needed LNG as a transition fuel. But the success of renewables and batteries has killed that conceit. So any deal would disappoint in the long term.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Woodside Energy on June 15 said it "is not aware of any proposal and confirms it is not in discussions regarding a potential transaction with Exxon Mobil".

The statement followed a report by Bloomberg on June 13 that Exxon had been having "early stage discussions internally", according to sources with knowledge of the matter, about transactions that would expand its presence in liquefied natural gas and Asian markets. Woodside was one of the potential targets.