Santos hits record production in 2019

Australian LNG player Santos, the operator of the GLNG project, reported record production and revenue for the year 2019. 

Santos’ annual production reached 75.5 mmboe, 28 percent above the 58.9 mmboe reported in 2018.

Sales volumes for the year 2019 reached 94.5 mmboe, 21 percent above the 78.3 mmboe sold in the previous year, the company noted in its report. Sales revenue kicked up 10 percent reaching a company record of $4 billion, which compares to $3.6 billion in 2018.

Santos added that its fourth-quarter production of 18.7 mmboe was 5 percent lower than the prior quarter primarily due to domestic gas customer outages in Western Australia.

The average realized LNG price reached $9.77/mmBtu, down from $9.91/mmBtu in 2018.

Fourth-quarter LNG production was the highest of 2019, supported by strong upstream production growth. The GLNG target to deliver 6 mtpa equivalent run-rate was achieved in the month of October, with an annualized sales runrate, including volumes redirected to the domestic market, exceeding 6 mtpa annualized. Santos now expects a GLNG annualized sales run-rate of ~6.2 mtpa from 2020.

A total of 104 wells were drilled across the GLNG acreage in the fourth quarter. A record number of wells were drilled and connected in 2019, namely 393 wells were drilled, 29 percent higher than 2018 and 431 wells were connected, 44 percent higher than 2018.

Sixty-two development wells were drilled across Santos’ non-operated Eastern Queensland acreage in the quarter.