Sydney, Feb 18, 2026, 18:22 AEDT — The market has closed.
- Santos slipped 0.6% to finish at A$6.63, with the company pointing to job reductions and a review of its portfolio.
- The producer left its 2026 guidance where it was, and announced a final dividend of 10.3 U.S. cents.
- Oil’s direction is back in focus for traders, who are also circling Santos ahead of its Feb 23 ex-dividend date.
Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) slipped 0.6% to finish at A$6.63 on Wednesday. The producer announced plans to trim its workforce by about 10% and is reviewing its Australian integrated oil and gas assets after missing full-year profit expectations. Barrenjoey’s energy research head Dale Koenders noted the market is assigning “zero value” to Santos’ undeveloped assets. Reuters
Timing’s key here. Santos is out to reassure investors it can wring extra cash from its core operations. That comes right as several major projects shift from construction to day-to-day running—traditionally a phase where deadlines get tighter and costs can bite harder.
The ASX is closed, leaving the coming session poised to test if the cost-cutting pitch actually lands. Investors will be watching to see if the portfolio review gets traction as a genuine value play—or just turns into another slide deck footnote.
Santos posted an underlying net profit after tax of $898 million for 2025 in its full-year statement and free cash flow hit $1.8 billion. Unit production costs came in at $6.78 per barrel of oil equivalent. The board declared a final dividend of 10.3 U.S. cents per share. 2026 guidance stayed put: production and sales are still expected between 101 and 111 million barrels of oil equivalent. First oil from Alaska’s Pikka phase 1 is still slated for late in the first quarter.
The stock is set to go ex-dividend on Monday, Feb 23, according to a dividend filing, with Feb 24 marked as the record date and March 25 as the payout date. This dividend won’t be franked, so no Australian tax credits are attached. Santos plans to announce the Australian dollar equivalent on March 3, once it finalizes exchange rates a day earlier.
Oil’s under pressure too. Brent hovered at about $67.65 a barrel, flirting with two-week lows after shedding nearly 2% in the last session. Traders kept an eye on U.S.–Iran nuclear negotiations and awaited fresh U.S. inventory numbers.
Santos and others in the sector know all too well how that sort of red tape quickly overshadows company details—particularly when executives are urging investors to tune out short-term project churn and pay attention to costs and cash payouts.
Plenty can backfire here. A portfolio review might yield zero deals—or force investors to swallow prices they hate. And cost cuts? Sure, they seem tidy in a spreadsheet, but miss a beat on execution and operations could take the hit.
