Santos NEWS

MELBOURNE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Australian gas producer Santos Ltd (STO.AX) booked record sales revenue for 2021, pumped up by soaring oil and gas prices, and expects to reap big gains following its $6.2 billion takeover of Oil Search amid a surging energy market. After approaching Oil Search with an offer in the middle of last year, seeking to put together a top-20 global company that could weather the transition to cleaner energy, oil and gas prices have strengthened and beefed up the value of the deal.

DOF Subsea has secured multiple new contracts worth $110m from Brazilian firm Petrobras. According to the contract, DOF Subsea will provide survey and inspection services within its core service lines. These operations will be performed in the Campos, Santos, and Espírito Santos basins, as well as Marlin Field. The contract works are expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year.

Santos Ltd paid out a weaker than expected half-year dividend amid uncertainty over recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Underlying profit slumped to $212 million for the six months to June 30 from $411 million a year earlier. Including $526 million in asset impairments due to weaker long term oil price assumptions, Santos had a first-half net loss of $289 million.

ConocoPhillips has completed the sale of its west-Australian business to Santos for $1.39 billion, a major boost to the company’s balance sheet during the economic downturn. The Houston oil major, which announced the sale in October, has received about $765 million in proceeds from the sale during the second quarter. The proceeds are expected to be used for “general corporate purposes,” the company said Wednesday.

Australian E&P firm, Santos Ltd registered a 13% decline in the first-quarter revenue yesterday due to lower realized prices for oil and gas, but assured about sufficient liquidity and debt headroom to tackle the recent market crash. Santos posted $883 million in revenue from $1.02 billion a year ago. Total production from the firm dropped to 17.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), down from 18.4 mmboe last year.

Australian E&P major, Santos has inked a non-binding agreement with oil supermajor, BP which will pave the path for A$20 million investment in Australia's Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The project aims at capturing 1.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide currently separated from natural gas at the Moomba gas processing plant each year. This captured carbon will be then reinjected into the same geological formations.

ConocoPhillips has farmed out its northern Australian business to Santos Ltd in a $1.39 billion deal. The acquisition, which will boost Santos’ output by 25%, is second in the line of major acquisitions made by the Australian firm this year. While ConocoPhillips will let go of the Darwin LNG plant and gas fields off northern Australia, it will hold onto its stakes in the Australia Pacific LNG plant in Queensland.

Australian energy firm, Santos Ltd has registered record gas production in the second quarter, supported by stronger output across its gas assets. Santos recorded a jump from 14.2 mmboe last year to 18.6 mmboe. The production figure beat analysts’ expectation of 17.78 mmboe. Santos also saw a jump in sales for the three-month period to 22.4 mmboe from 19.1 mmboe in the previous year, producing $959 million in revenue.

Santos has decided to buy 14.3% stakes in the Petroleum Retention License 3 Joint Venture. It will buy the stakes for $187 million. The effort to be a part of the PNG LNG project is in line with Santos' expansion plan. ExxonMobil being the major stakeholder of this venture has agreed to sell its holding in the P'nyang gas field in Papua New Guinea to Santos.

Australian oil and gas giant, Santos has informed about producing first oil from the Van Gogh infill project, offshore Western Australia. The project, which commenced in September of 2018, involved drilling of two subsea wells and their completion. The wells were, then, connected into existing offshore infrastructure. Santos holds 52.5% stakes and the operatorship of the Van Gogh-Coniston-Novara project.

Australian oil major, Santos’ JV with supermajor, Shell has secured new acreage in Queensland’s key gas-producing Surat and Bowen Basins. Spread across almost 400 sq km of area, exploration activities in the new acreage will aim at the natural gas in deep sandstone reservoirs of the Bowen Basin. Santos is the designated operator of the license.

Santos announced the proposed acquisition of Quadrant Energy on 22 August 2018. The company has now informed that the pre-condition of Australian Competition and Consumer Division for the completion of acquisition has been fulfilled and the completion might occur within weeks. CEO of Santos said “We already have very significant growth projects across our five core assets, and Quadrant’s recent oil discovery at Dorado is another exciting opportunity for us,”

At the Investor Day of Santos in Sydney, CEO of the company announced the plan to increase production to more than 100 MMboe by 2025. This approach is in line with the successful implementation of 2016 transform-build-grow strategy of Santos. He said “We are now positioned for disciplined growth leveraging existing infrastructure in all five of our assets in the portfolio”

Santos has completed its sale of interests in the Sampang PSC and Madura Offshore PSC in Indonesia, and Vietnam Block 12W PSC. It follows the company’s announcement in May 2018 when Santos decided to sell its non-core Asian portfolio to Ophir Energy plc. Santos received a cash proceed of $144 million after the completion. It will help the company reduce its debt which was $2.2 billion till Aug. 31, 2018.

Santos Ltd will buy the privately held Quadrant Energy in a $2.15 billion deal. Santos will then have access to the biggest oil field in Australia in over two decades. Santos informed that in order to leave its dividend policy unaffected, it will fund the deal in cash. Also, after this deal, the annual production of Santos will rise by 32%.

Hong Kong-based PetroChina has awarded a three-year-long LNG supply contract to ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project. Under the terms of the contract, 0.45 million tonnes a year (0.45Mt/y) of LNG from the operation in Papua New Guinea, will be supplied to PetroChina, reaching 1.35 million tonnes in 3 years. The PNG LNG project is already supplying some 6.6Mt to major Asian customers like Sinopec, Osaka Gas and others.

ConocoPhillips and Santos Energy, who are working together on the Barossa offshore project in Australia, have awarded three FEED contracts for the development. The engineering contract for the design of an FPSO has been awarded to MODEC and a consortium of TechnipFMC and Samsung Heavy Industries, as a design competition. The third contract was secured by INTECSEA for the subsea infrastructure, which involves umbilicals, flowlines, risers and gas export pipeline.

Rising oil prices combined with a massive debt killed the world's biggest private equity oil and gas industry deal a week ago. Harbour Energy, which came to Australia looking to become a major LNG player, left the country empty-handed after a year of chasing gas producer, Santos. Santos rejected Harbour’s final offer of $10.8b last week for its stakes in three LNG projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea.