PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos has reported record sales revenue for the three months to December, on the back of a 6% increase in production.

Sales revenue during the December quarter reached more than A$1-billion, up 7% on the previous quarter, with Santos also reporting record quarterly liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales revenue of A$449-million, up 11% on the previous quarter.

For the full year ended December, Santos booked record sales revenue of more than A$3.69-billion, up 19% on the previous financial year.

“In 2018, Santos delivered higher production in the onshore business and acquired Quadrant Energy, which will provide a significant boost to our production in 2019,” said MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher.

Production during the fourth quarter ended December was up by 6% to 15.9-million barrels of oil equivalent, with full-year production down by 1% on the previous corresponding period, to 58.9-million barrels of oil equivalent.

Sales volumes for the fourth quarter were up 3% on the previous quarter, to 20.9-million barrels of oil equivalent, bringing the full-year sales volumes to 79.2-million barrels of oil equivalent.

“Our cash generative asset portfolio set new records for quarterly and annual sales revenues, notwithstanding the divestment of our noncore Asian assets during the year, while our low cost and disciplined operating model enabled more investment in exploration and appraisal, to improve ongoing organic resource and reserve replacement,” Gallagher said on Thursday.

“With the completion of the value accretive Quadrant Energy acquisition in November, we are now focused on integrating these low cost, long life conventional assets and realising the A$30-million to A$50-million combination synergies per annum.”

Gallagher noted that in 2019, Santos will focus on its disciplined growth portfolio, including the Papua New Guinea LNG expansion, Barossa backfill to the Darwin LNG plant, an appraisal of the Dorado oil discovery, and lifting the drilling activity to grow production and appraisal activity in the company’s onshore business.

Santos was expecting sales volumes in 2019 to reach between 88-million and 98-million barrels of oil equivalent, with production to reach between 71-million and 78-million barrels of oil equivalent.

“Santos is positioned for growth across each of our five core assets and we are targeting production of more than 100-million barrels of oil equivalent by 2025, almost double 2018’s levels,” Gallagher said.