Santos have announced a record sales revenue of $1.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2013 with the result driven by the company’s highest oil production in six years, strong oil prices and higher third party sales volumes.
The strong December result helped to deliver $3.602 billion worth of revenue for 2013, 12 per cent higher than the previous year.
The Adelaide-based company said fourth quarter production of 13.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) was in line with the corresponding period and 2% lower than the third quarter of 2013.
While gas production of 9.1 mmboe was 6% lower than the corresponding period, with higher production from the Carnarvon Basin offset by lower production in the Cooper Basin and Asia.
Driven by higher gas prices in Western Australia and Indonesia, and higher LNG prices from Darwin LNG, the average gas price for the quarter was up 10 per cent to $5.53/GJ.
Oil prices also rose from $121 per barrel to $127.
Santos CEO David Knox said the company would continue to make strong progress on the delivery of major projects which are expected to double cash flow in the coming years.
Knox confirmed its GLNG project at Gladstone and Papua New Guinea LNG project were 72 per cent and 90 per cent complete, respectively, and were both on-track and on-budget.
“In the second half of 2014 the first of these projects, PNG LNG, is on track to commence LNG shipments to Asia, delivering a significant boost in production and cashflow for the company,” Knox said.
“We are very pleased with the progress being made on the project, with commissioning of the upstream and LNG plant facilities well underway.”
Knox also said drilling for shale gas in the Cooper Basin was also delivering promising results.
“The proximity of these resources to existing infrastructure provides us with a real advantage, and our exploration efforts will continue in 2014,” he said.