Santos Quarterly Sales Rise 11% on Production Boost, LNG Volumes in Australia

Santos Ltd., the Australian oil and gas company, reported a 11 percent rise in third-quarter sales due to a boost in production.

Revenue rose to $650 million from $585 million a year ago, Adelaide-based Santos said in a statement Friday. The company switched to reporting in U.S. dollars at its interim results in August. Production increased to 15.5 million barrels of oil equivalent from 14.5 million barrels of oil equivalent in the corresponding period of 2015.

Forecast capital expenditure for 2016 has been trimmed to $700 million from $750 million previously. The producer narrowed its 2016 production guidance to a range of 60 million to 62 million barrels of oil equivalent from the previous band of 57 million to 63 million barrels. It will also start an oil hedging program “to reduce the effect of commodity price volatility and support annual capital expenditure plans”.

Santos is among companies grappling with a slump in energy prices amid a surge in liquefied natural gas supply. The International Energy Agency says an oversupply in natural gas won’t disappear until the end of the decade as LNG capacity jumps 45 percent through 2021 with 90 percent of that supply due to come from Australia and the U.S.

The company’s main assets include a 13.5 percent stake in Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $19 billion LNG venture in Papua New Guinea and a 30 percent stake in the $18.5 billion Gladstone LNG project in Australia, which it said produced 1.3 million tons of LNG in the quarter.

https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/santos-quarterly-sales-rise-11-on-production-boost-lng-volumes/