Rising oil and fuel costs fuelled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine have propelled fuel producer Santos to document income.
Australia’s largest pure fuel provider reported on Wednesday a 221 per cent surge in web revenue after tax to $US2.1 billion for the 12 months ending December 31.
Gas costs and demand skyrocketed in 2022 as western nations shunned Russian suppliers in favour of extra politically expedient options.
Santos says it additionally benefited from the transition to renewables as governments look to dispatchable pure fuel to shore up reliability within the vitality grid.
“Our critical fuels not only play a key role in the energy security of Australia and Asia, but they also provide affordable and reliable alternatives to switch from higher emitting fuels,” chief govt Kevin Gallagher stated.
But these sentiments weren’t shared by Will van de Pol, performing govt director of environmental advocacy group Market Forces.
“Santos’ remuneration report reveals an abject failure of corporate governance,” he stated.
“Santos’ board is paying executives big bonuses for increasing oil and gas production and developing new projects incompatible with the climate goals the company and its investors claim to support.”
While Santos forecasts its fuel manufacturing will drop from 103 million barrels of oil equal (mmboe) in 2022 to 89 to 96 mmboe in 2023, it stays assured within the long-term demand for pure fuel as a result of continued Asian financial progress, rising international inhabitants, urbanisation in creating economies and rising demand for lower-emission fossil fuels, relative to coal.
The International Energy Agency forecasts pure fuel will present round 1 / 4 of the world’s vitality wants till at the very least 2050.
Earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation got here in at US$5.5b. Despite greater than double the earlier 12 months’s earnings, the end result was marginally under consensus expectations.
RBC capital markets analyst Gordon Ramsay attributed the earnings miss to barely increased than anticipated unit manufacturing prices of US$7.82 a barrel as a result of increased working prices for Santos’ Cooper Basin and Western Australia belongings.
Santos awarded shareholders a bumper 78 per cent enhance in its last dividend to US15.1c, taking its full-year dividend to US22.7c.
This comes on high of the beforehand introduced $US700m on-market share buyback, of which $US384 had been accomplished by the top of 2022.
Santos shares soared 3.7 per cent in early buying and selling to $7.06 at midday AEDT.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
