Santos Profile
Santos Limited operates as an oil and gas exploration and production company in Australia. The company holds projects throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The company engages in petroleum exploration, the production, treatment and marketing of natural gas, crude oil, condensate, naphtha, liquid petroleum gas, and the transportation by pipeline of crude oil.
The company is developing a project to build an LNG facility at Gladstone, Queensland that would convert coal seam gas to LNG. As of December 31, 2007, the company had estimated proven and probable reserves of 1,013 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Activities
Exploration Projects
Amadeus Basin: The Amadeus Basin is located in the Northern Territory near Alice Springs. The company has interests in four permits in this Basin which contain the Mereenie oil and gas field and the Palm Valley and Dingo gas fields. Mereenie and Palm Valley are producing fields.
Bangladesh: The company acquired the following assets in Bangladesh in October 2007 from Cairn Energy PLC: a 37.5% interest in the Sangu Development Area; a 37.5% interest in Block 16 exploration acreage; and a 45% interest in exploration Blocks 5 and 10.
Bonaparte Basin: The Bonaparte Basin is located in coastal waters off the north coast of Australia. The company holds interests in four permits in the southern Bonaparte which contain the undeveloped Petrel and Tern gas fields. It holds interests in a further three permits in the northern Bonaparte containing the undeveloped Evans Shoal, Caldita and Barossa/Lynedoch gas resources. It operates the NT/P48 permit (Evans Shoal) and has a 40% interest in both the NT/P61 and NT/P69 blocks, where ConocoPhillips is the Operator (Caldita and Barossa/Lynedoch respectively).
Browse Basin: The Browse Basin is located in coastal waters off the north-west coast of Australia. The company holds interests in four exploration permits in this Basin.
Carnarvon Basin: The Carnarvon Basin is located in coastal waters off the north-west coast of Australia. The company holds significant acreage in this area and has interests in 10 producing fields: Mutineer-Exeter (Santos interest 33.4%); John Brookes gas field (Santos interest 45.0%); Stag oil field (Santos interest 66.67%); East Spar gas, condensate and John Brookes gas fields (Santos interest 45%); Chervil, South Pepper and North Herald (Airlie) oil fields (Santos interest 15%); Barrow Island oil field (Santos interest 28.6%); Thevenard oil fields (Santos interest 35.7%); and Legendre oil field (Santos interest 22.6%). The company also has an interest in the Corowa (Santos interest 50%) oil discovery.
Cooper/Eromanga Basins: The company produces sales gas, ethane, crude oil and gas liquids from the basin. Sales gas and ethane are processed at both the Moomba and Ballera plants, with liquids transported to Port Bonython for crude oil and gas liquids processing. Ballera is located onshore central Australia, south-west Queensland, approximately 90 kilometers east of the South Australia-Queensland border and approximately 950 kilometers north of Adelaide. South-west Queensland crude oil is processed at Jackson and then transported to the Lytton terminal in Brisbane for distribution to customers.
East Java: The company holds a 40.5% interest in the Sampang PSC, which contains the Jeruk and Oyong fields and the Wortel gas discovery, a 67.5% interest in the Madura Offshore PSC which contains the Maleo field.
Egypt: The company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Santos Egypt Pty Ltd, holds equity in one exploration concession in the Gulf of Suez: offshore South East July (Santos operated with 100% interest).
Gippsland Basin: The Gippsland Basin is located in coastal waters in the south-east corner of Victoria. The company holds interests in four permits in this basin which contain the Kipper (Santos interest 35%), Sole (Santos interest 100%) and the Patricia-Baleen (Santos interest 100%) gas fields.
Gunnedah Basin: The company has interests in various Petroleum Exploration Licenses in the Gunnedah Basin, and is undertaking an 18-month exploration program for coal seam gas (CSG). The area under exploration is approximately 20,000square kilometers, with exploration and initial testing limited to specific sites with minimal impact on the land. The area takes in the districts around Gunnedah, Coonabarabran, Scone, Quirindi and Boggabri.
Houtman Basin: The Houtman Sub-Basin, which forms part of the Greater Perth Basin, is located in deep water (500-3,000 meters) approximately 150 kilometers off the coast of Western Australia, north of Geraldtown. The company has a 33% interest in Permit WA-328-P.
India: During February 2007, the company’s subsidiary, Santos International Operations Pty Ltd, was awarded a 100% working interest and operatorship of blocks NEC-DWN-2004/1 and NEC-DWN-2004/2, covering approximately 16,500 square kilometers in the Bengal Basin, in the northern Bay of Bengal, offshore India.
Kutei Basin: The company has a 20% non operated interest in the Popodi and Papalang Production and Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and a 50% operated interest in the Donggala PSC all of which are in the deep water portion of the Kutei Basin, Indonesia.
Kyrgyzstan: A Santos subsidiary, Santos International Operations Pty Ltd, holds a majority shareholding in three operating vehicles in Kyrgyzstan, South Petroleum Company (70%), Textonic (60%), and KNG Hydrocarbons (54%). These companies operate 14 prospecting licenses covering approximately 12000 square kilometers of the Fergana Basin. The Fergana Basin covers an area of 63,000 square kilometers.
Nam Con Son Basin: The company holds a 37.5% interest in Block 12W Production Sharing Contract (PSC). The block covers approximately 3,447.5 square kilometers in the Nam Con Son Basin, offshore southern Vietnam.
Otway Basin: The Otway Basin is located in the south-west corner of Victoria and the south-east corner of South Australia. The company holds interests in one exploration permit, one retention license and two production licenses. It has a 10% interest in the VIC/L22 permit which contains the Minerva gas field and VIC/RL7 containing the undeveloped La Bella gas field. It also has a 50% operated interest in the VIC/L24 permit containing the Casino gas field.
Papua New Guinea and West Papua: The company has interests in various licenses in the fold belt area in Papua New Guinea and West Papua, including a 31.0% interest in PDL 1 which contains the majority of the large Hides gas field.
Song Hong Basin: The company signed a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (Petrovietnam) for Block 101-100/04 (Block) in the Song Hong Basin, offshore Vietnam. It would operate the block and holds a 55% participating interest.
Sorell Basin: The Sorell Basin is located on the west side of Tasmania. The company holds interests in five exploration permits.
Surat and Bowen Basins: The Surat and Bowen Basins, in which the company holds interests in various permits, are located in eastern Queensland. It produces sales gas and gas liquids from the Surat Basin and sales gas from the Bowen Basin. The company also operates the 100%-owned producing Scotia coal seam methane field, as well as the Roma gas fields.
Timor Gap: The Timor Gap is located in coastal waters north of Australia. The company has interests in two permits in this region and has interests in three producing oil fields: Elang, Kakatua and Kakatua North (Santos interest 21.4%). It also has an interest in the Bayu-Undan gas and condensate field (Santos interest 11.4%).
Timor Sea: The Timor Sea is located in coastal waters north of Australia. The company holds interests in three permits in this region and has interests in two producing oil fields: Jabiru and Challis (Santos interest 10.3%).
West Natuna Basin: The company holds a 9% interest in the producing Kakap PSC.
Development Projects
Cooper/Eromanga Basins: Cooper/Eromanga Basins are located in onshore central Australia in south-west Queensland, approximately 1,050 kilometers west of Brisbane.
Gladstone LNG project: The company holds a 60% interest in the proposed Gladstone LNG project located in Gladstone, Queensland.
Henry: The company holds a 50% interest in the Henry field. VIC/P44 permit located in Otway Basin, offshore Victoria, located approximately 8.5 kilometers north of the Casino field, 250 kilometers south-west of Melbourne.
Kipper: The company holds 35% interest in the Kipper field. The Kipper Unit straddles VIC/L25 permit and VIC/L9 permits, Gippsland Basin, in the coastal waters of Bass Strait, offshore south-east Victoria.
Oyong: The company holds a 45% interest in the Oyong field.
PNG LNG: The Hides gas/condensate field is located in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands, with the development to include a pipeline from the Highlands to a proposed LNG plant near Port Moresby.
Reindeer: The company holds a 45% interest in the Reindeer field. WA-209-P (Reindeer) permit is located in Devil Creek, Carnarvon Basin, approximately 45 kilometers south-west of Dampier, offshore northern Western Australia.
Significant Events
The company acquired significant additional acreage in the Gunnedah Basin in northern New South Wales and an investment in Eastern Star Gas Ltd. It acquired 35% interest in various Gunnedah Basin exploration permits and production areas.
On August 18, 2009, Santos Ltd. and GDF Suez have announced a partnership to develop a floating LNG project in the Bonaparte Basin. GDF SUEZ and Santos would form a 60/40 unincorporated joint venture, to be led by GDF SUEZ, to develop and operate a proposed floating liquefaction plant with a planned capacity of 2mtpa of LNG that would utilise the gas from the Petrel, Tern and Frigate natural gas fields.
History
Santos Limited was founded in 1954.
