Citing Perth-based industry sources, the Weekend Australian reported that Woodside aimed to cut more than 20% of its nearly 4000-strong workforce with the "deep cuts" to be timed progressively over the remainder of this year.

"The company's next wave of growth projects has failed to materialise in recent years, leaving excess capacity within portions of the business," the newspaper commented.

Woodside did not directly deny or confirm the job cutting claims.

"Woodside has a productivity program that is delivering process improvements and streamlining how we work," a Woodside spokeswoman told Energy News.

"Woodside continues to develop and promote people from within and continues to recruit for critical roles, graduates, vacation students, trainees and apprentices."

The productivity program was discussed at Woodside's investor briefing in May.

The relevant presentation slide revealed the program assumed the Browse floating LNG project would be in development and was targeting a "run rate" of $US800 million ($A857 million) of benefits by the end of 2016.

The program was aiming for 10-20% savings in the categories of "external spend" and "improved organisation efficiency" along with higher revenue plus lower unit production and corporate costs.