ADELAIDE, Australia, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Santos Limited
today reported that production continued to improve in the latest September
quarter, following the full recommissioning of the Moomba plant during the
period and new production from Bayu-Undan.
Production has increased strongly with third quarter production up by 12%,
and revenue up 26% compared with the second quarter to 30 June 2004.
Revenue rose by 9% when compared with the September 2003 quarter, while
production declined by 11% as forecast. Production optimisation, acquisitions
and new projects continued to slow the rate of decline.
Revenue for the latest quarter was Santos' highest quarterly revenue since
2001. The higher average oil price for the quarter more than offset the
impact of lower sales volumes and resulted in the Company's sales revenue
increasing to $420.3 million compared with $386.4 million in the September
2003 quarter.
The average oil price for the quarter increased to A$57.36 per barrel - up
34% over the third quarter of 2003.
Recent performance in quarterly production and sales is depicted in the
chart at the end of this release.
"Lower third quarter production in 2004 was due mainly to reduced Cooper
Basin gas and liquids production as a result of the Moomba incident and lower
firm contracted demand," said Santos' Managing Director, Mr John Ellice-Flint.
"Pleasingly, crude oil production from the Cooper increased against the
second quarter and also against the third quarter last year. This is the
highest quarterly production in four years," he said.
"The Moomba plant was fully recommissioned during the third quarter.
Losses during the quarter will be included in the Company's insurance claim,
which is currently in progress."
Mr Ellice-Flint said Santos' production outlook for 2004 remained
unchanged at 45 to 46 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) despite higher
production losses than first anticipated from the Moomba incident.
"The rapid development of new projects continues to be a priority and we
have maintained a high level of spending with third quarter development
expenditure of $158.5 million," he said.
Significant progress on key growth projects was achieved during the third
quarter, including:
* The Bayu-Undan LNG project (Darwin) - the pipeline project which
connects the field to the onshore LNG plant is 63% complete, while the
LNG plant is 59% complete and on schedule for early 2006 start up.
* The Mutineer-Exeter oil field development (offshore WA) - the well
completion and sub-sea connection phases commenced during the quarter,
to bring the four successful horizontal development wells, three of
which have been drilled since the August interim results. The project
is now more than 75% complete.
* The Casino gas field development (offshore Victoria) - has progressed to
formal sanction with the signing of an expanded gas sales agreement with
TXU. Increased volumes available under the contract have enabled
additional exploration drilling which is now in progress.
* The John Brookes gas field project (offshore WA) - is moving towards
first production in mid 2005. An additional gas sales agreement with EDL
has been signed supplementing volumes under the Newcrest contract.
This quarter marked the start of an active exploration period for Santos
with several potentially high impact exploration wells spudded. More are
planned for the fourth quarter. Exploration results to date include the
successful Torres 1A well in the United States, which was recently brought
onto production. In the opening weeks of October, the Jeruk 2 well, which was
drilling in the third quarter, was tested with an encouraging flow of 7,488
barrels of 33 API oil per day through a 1/2 inch choke at a flowing pressure
of 2,762 psi.
Santos stock symbols: STO (Australian Stock Exchange), STOSY (NASDAQ ADR)
SOURCE Santos Limited
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Related links:
http://www.santos.com
CONTACT:
Media: Kathryn Mitchell, +61-8-8218-5260, or
+61-407-979-982, or Investor: Graeme Bethune, +61-8-8218-5157, or
+61-419-828-617, both for Santos Limited
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