Australia’s Santos reported a record sales revenue in 2022 on the back of high liquefied natural gas prices and increased PNG LNG position after the merger with Oil Search.
The independent LNG producer said on Thursday that its 2022 sales revenue rose 65 percent to $7.8 billion while it reported a record free cash flow of $3.6 billion.
In the fourth quarter, sales revenue reached almost $1.9 billion, down 12 percent when compared to the prior quarter and up when compared to $1.5 billion in the same period last year.
Also, the firm said its fourth-quarter production of 25.6 mmboe was slightly lower than the third quarter primarily due to reduced domestic gas volumes in Western Australia following unplanned maintenance at John Brookes.
However, Santos reported record annual production of 105.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), reduced to 103.2 mmboe following including Bayu-Undan volumes on a net PSC entitlement basis.
LNG prices climb
Santos is now a bigger company following the completion of the merger deal with PNG-focused Oil Search in December 2021.
The Australian LNG player said its average realized LNG price of $16.92 per MMBtu in the fourth quarter increased slightly when compared to 16.76 per MMBtu in the prior quarter.
According to Santos, the average realized LNG price of 15.51 per MMBtu for 2022 was higher some 6.26 per MMBtu from 2021.
The higher average realized LNG price for the fourth quarter reflected the link of sales contracts to a slightly higher lagged Japan Customs-cleared Crude (JCC) price but was partially offset by lower average JKM spot prices, the firm said.
Three-month lagged JCC averaged $113/bbl in fourth quarter compared to $111/bbl in third quarter of 2022.
Santos’ LNG projects shipped 60 cargoes in the fourth quarter, of which six were sold on a JKM-linked basis, three from Darwin LNG and three from PNG LNG.