MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum WPL.AX , Australia's biggest independent oil and gas producer, reported a worse-than-expected 50 percent slump in first-half profit, hit by sliding oil and gas prices, but tweaked up its output forecast for 2016.
Net profit fell to $340 million for the six months to June from $678 million a year earlier, the company said on Friday, which was well below an average of six analysts' forecasts around $391 million.
Woodside announced an interim dividend of 34 cents, down from 66 cents a year ago. Analysts on average had forecast a dividend of around 40 cents.
The company said it now expects to produce between 90 and 95 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in 2016, up from an earlier forecast of 86 to 93 mmboe.