Santos (ASX: STO) supplies 15% of Australia's gas needs, and today delivered a 31% fall in Net profit to $519 million for the year ended 31 December 2012 when compared to the previous corresponding period.
Of interest the lower profit was derived from an 18% increase in revenue to $3,299 million,
Production and sales
Santos’ 2012 production was up 10% to 52.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (“mmboe”). Production from new assets such as Reindeer in Western Australia and Chim Sao in Vietnam, combined with strong Cooper Basin oil production, drove the increase.
Consistent delivery of Santos’ strategy has positioned the company for further growth, with production expected to reach over 80 mmboe by 2020.
Sales volumes grew by 4% in 2012 to 61 mmboe, reflecting higher production partially offset by lower overall third party product sales.
Sales revenue grew by 18% to a record $3,220 million, driven by a 33% increase in crude oil production and higher third party crude oil sales.
The average realised oil price was A$113.78 per barrel, marginally lower than 2011, while the average gas price of A$5.14 per gigajoule was 9% higher.
Eastern Australia
Santos' Eastern Australia Business Unit EBITDAX was $668 million, 3% higher than 2011.
The company’s share of Cooper Basin gas production of 66.6 petajoules (PJ) during 2012 was 1% higher than 2011, with improvements in field and plant downtime partially offset by lower upstream capacity due to the project backlog caused by wet weather impacting the 2010-11 drilling campaigns.
Santos’ share of condensate production was 1 million barrels (“mmbbl”), in line with 2011. Santos’ share of gas production from the Surat/Bowen/Denison areas in Queensland and the Otway Basin offshore Victoria was 30.6 PJ, 8% lower than 2011 primarily due to the shut-in of the non-operated Northern Denison field.
Santos produced 3.2 mmbbl of oil from the Cooper Basin in 2012, its highest production since 2009. Driving the increase was the prior year drilling campaigns in the Zeus and Cook fields, improved access to field infrastructure following the 2010-11 floods and strong performance from the Charo wells brought on line in the second half of 2012.
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