“If you bring in imported gas, you’ll get international prices.”
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher
As other states including Queensland and Western Australia are major producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Australian energy ministers agreed in December to develop a plan to kick-start imports of LNG into south-eastern Australia for the first time, from other states or overseas.
This included seeking advice on potentially underwriting the launch of one or more LNG terminals.
Gallagher said importing LNG would inevitably expose domestic consumers to global prices, unless government provides subsidies at a cost to the taxpayer. “If you bring in imported gas, you’ll get international prices,” he said.
His comments came as Santos told investors its full-year profit for 2024 had fallen 11 per cent to $US1.2 billion ($1.9 billion), missing analysts’ expectations, amid declines in the prices it earned for selling crude oil and LNG.
The company said it would pay a final dividend to US10¢ a share, unfranked, down from US17.6¢ a year earlier.
Also on Monday, Santos sounded an upbeat tone about the prospect of its carbon capture and storage site at Moomba in South Australia, saying its successful start last year had given the company greater confidence in its ability to stash greater volumes of emissions underground from customers across Australia and in Asia.
Loading
Carbon capture and storage, which traps emissions from polluting facilities such as power stations or factories and injects them into underground rock formations, has been one of the most contentious solutions in the fight to arrest climate change.
Supporters argue it is a critical tool to decarbonise the world and avoid the worst impacts of global warming, especially in parts of the economy that cannot easily switch to greener processes. Critics, meanwhile, dismiss the technology as too expensive and commercially unproven, and claim it is being used as a delaying tactic by the oil and gas industry to prolong the use of fossil fuels.
Market Forces, a climate-focused shareholder activism group, said Santos’ reliance on carbon capture and storage was a “smokescreen” for expanding gas production.
“Any emissions captured by Moomba are a drop in the ocean compared with the company’s current annual emissions,” Market Forces campaigner Brett Morgan said.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
