Kevin Gallagher, the managing director and chief executive officer of Santos, has highlighted his company’s portfolio of high-quality growth projects. He also talked about the current global energy situation and likely scenarios for the future.
“We will be disciplined in taking further final investment decisions, ensuring that projects like Dorado, Pikka, Narrabri, Bayu-Undan CCS, Papua LNG, and others fit with our strategy and meet our commercial and economic hurdles. This includes equity interest levels and joint venture alignment. And we will ensure they can be delivered within our capital management framework,” Gallagher said.
“As we move into our disciplined growth phase and integrate the Oil Search business, we will maintain our strong focus on costs, and ensure we live by our disciplined, low-cost operating model to drive shareholder returns.
“The year 2021 brought global energy security into the spotlight with higher prices and a supply crunch in the wake of rapidly recovering demand and a lack of investment in new supply.
“This renewed focus on energy security was exacerbated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he added.
“The year showed us that we must reduce our emissions without compromising on energy security. And we can only do this through decarbonisation, not defossilisation.
“Oil, gas and coal still make up about 80 per cent of the world’s energy today, the same as 45 years ago. Even under the International Energy Agency’s Net-Zero by 2050 scenario, the world will still use oil and gas in 2050 and still needs more than US$10 trillion (about K35 trillion) to be invested in new supply sources over the next two decades to meet demand.
“So, if we are serious about decarbonisation, we must find ways to make these fuels cleaner,” Gallagher said.
