The company booked record sales revenue of more than $1 billion for the third quarter, up by 29% on the corresponding quarter in 2012.
Santos said the increase was driven by high oil production, strong oil prices and higher third party sales volumes.
Production was up by 8% on the second quarter, with the company booking 13.4 million barrels of oil equivalent produced.
The strong production was met with a strong gas price of $5.98 per gigajoule, 10% higher than in the previous quarter.
Santos confirmed the PNG LNG project was more than 90% complete and remained on track for first LNG in the second half of 2014.
Construction continues to progress at the LNG plant and upstream locations, with commissioning activities well underway and the capital cost of $US19 billion unchanged.
Santos managing director and chief executive officer David Knox said record sales revenue of more than $1 billion demonstrated the performance of the existing business at the same time the company continued to progress the delivery of new projects and create opportunities for the future.
“Excellent progress continues to be made on our two major growth projects, with PNG LNG over 90% complete and Gladstone LNG over 65% complete,” he said.
“Both projects remain on schedule and capital cost estimates remain unchanged.
“We also continue to execute our strategy of focused growth in Asia, with the acquisition of an interest in the Ande Ande Lumut oil field offshore Indonesia and interests in exploration permits in Papua New Guinea.
“Our development projects, Dua and Peluang, are also on track to deliver first oil and first gas respectively in the first half of 2014.”
Santos also warned that full-year production was expected to be lower thanks to deferred oil and gas production in Chim Sao due to the shutdown of the gas export pipeline in late August and deferred oil production from Fletcher Finucane.
Meanwhile, Wall Street rose after US President Barack Obama formally signed legislation to end the 16-day government shutdown and avoid default.
The S&P 500 jumped 0.7% overnight to a record close of 1733.15 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 2.2 points due to a 6.4% slump in IBM shares.
The US dollar weakened on the government deal, sending the Australian dollar up above US96c, its highest point since June.
Our PNG stocks held steady, with the exception of Oil Search, which saw a 2.65% rise.
Singapore Tapis crude closed at $117.27 a barrel overnight, compared to $118.70 last Friday.
London Metal Exchange cash copper closed at $7205 a tonne overnight, up 0.39% from the price of $7177/t at the end of last week.
LME spot nickel rose slightly overnight at 0.69% to $13,947/t compared to last week’s price of $13,851/t.
Gold rose 3.6% to trade at $1272.18 an ounce in the past 30 minutes, compared to last week’s price of $1317.
PNGIndustrynews.net