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Summary

Santos today released its 2018 Fourth Quarter Activities Report.

Record sales revenue and strong production

  • Record quarterly sales revenue of $1,043 million, up 7% and including record quarterly LNG sales revenue of $449 million, up 11%
  • Record annual sales revenue of $3,696 million, up 19%
  • Fourth quarter production up 6% to 15.9 mmboe due to sustained strong performance from the core portfolio and acquisition of Quadrant Energy, partially offset by the sale of the non-core Asian assets

Onshore activity levels increasing within disciplined operating model

  • A record 305 wells in GLNG drilled in 2018, up 77%. Expect to drill 350-400 wells in 2019
  • 85 wells drilled in the Cooper Basin in 2018, up 40%. Expect to drill ~100 wells in 2019, including up to
    16 exploration wells

Cooper Basin exploration and appraisal success

  • The Cooper Basin exploration program resulted in five new field discoveries (four gas and one oil) and at Moomba South, four appraisal wells targeting a significant 2C resource have been brought on-line
  • The Moomba South program also discovered new plays in the Granite Wash and Tirrawarra sandstone which are being assessed for further appraisal

Quadrant Energy acquisition completed on 27 November 2018

  • On completion, Santos paid an amount of $1.93 billion, comprising the purchase price of $2.15 billion less completion adjustments and cash acquired

Cash generative core portfolio. Balance sheet supportive of growth profile

  • As at 31 December 2018, Santos had cash and cash equivalents of $1.3 billion and total debt of
    $4.9 billion, resulting in net debt of $3.6 billion and gearing of approximately 33%

Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said: “In 2018, Santos delivered higher production in the onshore business and acquired Quadrant Energy which will provide a significant boost to our production in 2019.”

“Our cash generative asset portfolio set new records for quarterly and annual sales revenues, notwithstanding the divestment of our non-core Asian assets during the year, while our low cost and disciplined operating model enabled more investment in exploration and appraisal to improve ongoing organic resource and reserve replacement.”

“With the completion of the value accretive Quadrant Energy acquisition in November, we are now focused on integrating these low cost, long-life conventional assets and realising the $30-50 million combination synergies per annum.”

“I am pleased that Brett Darley, previously Quadrant’s CEO, has joined Santos to lead our Australian offshore business.”

“In 2019, we will focus on our disciplined growth portfolio, including PNG LNG expansion, Barossa backfill to Darwin LNG, appraisal of the exciting Dorado oil discovery and lifting the drilling activity to grow production and appraisal activity in our onshore business.”

“Santos is positioned for growth across each of our five core assets and we are targeting production of more than
100 mmboe by 2025, almost double 2018’s level,” Mr Gallagher said.