Australia's second largest independent gas producer Santos on Thursday posted a 10.4% drop in its quarterly revenue due to weak realized gas prices, while higher production at Bayu-Undan and Western Australia assets pushed its quarterly output to a record high.
Quarterly sales revenue fell to $922 million from last year's $1.03 billion, missing Refinitiv estimate of $1.00 billion. Brokerage RBC Capital Markets had estimated a revenue of $912 million.
Revenue was hit as average liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices fell to $5.34 per metric million British thermal unit (mmBtu) for the quarter from $9.07 mmBtu a year earlier.
LNG prices shot up in December and hit a record high earlier in January, recovering from their all-time lows in the first half of 2020, as freezing temperatures across Asia and Europe drove cargo prices and shipping costs higher. [LNG/]
Output in the December quarter rose to 25.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) from last year's 18.7 mmboe, beating RBC Capital Markets' estimate of 24.8 mmboe. Annual output came in at 89.0 mmboe, at the top end of Santos' forecast made in December.
Production at Santos' Western Australia assets rose 20% in the quarter on improving spot demand, while output from Bayu-Undan facility to Darwin LNG saw a more than seven-fold jump during the period.
The gas producer maintained its 2021 production forecast of 84 mmboe to 91 mmboe and sales volumes outlook of 98 mmboe to 105 mmboe.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
