Santos Doubles Down on Oil and LNG Expansion

Australia’s Santos plans to prioritize growth in the production of crude oil and natural gas both at home and abroad, including in Alaska, the company said today, as quoted by Reuters. The output expansion will also include Papua New Guinea, the company’s chief executive said.

“We are now laser-focused on investment in major oil and LNG production across three regions,” Kevin Gallagher also said. “The strategic review of our Australian domestic oil and gas business has taken place amidst unprecedented market volatility and a changing policy landscape ‌in Australia,” the top executive added.

Santos recently started oil production from the Pikka field in Alaska. The project is expected to ramp up to 20,000 barrels per day gross over the next few weeks before reaching a planned plateau of 80,000 bpd gross in the third quarter. Santos operates the Pikka Unit with a 51% stake, while Repsol holds the remaining 49%.

The Australian company also, earlier this month, gave the green light to a natural gas project expansion in Papua New Guinea. Santos will invest about $160 million net in a brownfield project linking the Agogo Production Facility to the existing PNG LNG gas pipeline via a new 19-kilometer pipeline, two wells, and facility modifications. Gross capital expenditure is estimated at $400 million over three years. The project is expected to add around 135 million cu ft daily of production capacity, with Santos’ net share at roughly 54 million cu ft.

At home, Santos will focus its work on two basins—Beetaloo and Bedout—where it will utilize existing infrastructure to boost scale and profitability, according to the Reuters report. The company will also direct investments to the Cooper Basin, and more specifically, the Moomba Central fields as part of production ramp-up efforts.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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