Santos Q1 Output Falls on PNG Outage

Santos reported a drop in Q1 production due to planned maintenance at facilities in Moomba and in Queensland, and the temporary outage of PNG LNG following major earthquake activity in February.

The Australian company April 19 said its output in the quarter was 13.8mn barrels of oil equivalent, down 7% year on year. Santos revised its 2018 production guidance to 55-58mn boe from the 55-60mn boe it had previously expected, mainly due to the almost seven-week PNG LNG outage. A day earlier, its PNG partner Oil Search revised its guidance downwards for the same reason.

Santos' revenue in Q1 jumped 16.1% to (US)$794mn from $684mn in the same period last year, primarily due to higher product prices.  

Earlier this month the Australian independent producer received a fourth takeover proposal from US private equity-backed Harbour Energy. Santos Kevin Gallagher said:, “We will engage with Harbour Energy on its proposal to determine whether an offer for the company that is capable of recommendation by the Board for consideration by shareholders, can be developed.” But in the meantime, Santos has recommended shareholders should take no action in relation to the Harbour proposal.