SYDNEY, March 14, 2026, 10:51 AEDT
Santos Ltd finished Friday 0.5% higher at A$7.53, boosted as oil prices shot back above the $100 mark. Brent closed out the week at $103.14—its first time crossing that threshold since August 2022—after another stretch of sharp swings in energy markets.
Santos stands out among Australian-listed companies with its direct exposure to firming crude and LNG prices. Energy stocks pushed up 1.1% on Friday, bucking the broader market’s decline amid inflation concerns and growing chatter about a possible Reserve Bank of Australia rate hike next week.
A company angle played into the broader move as well. Earlier this week, Santos and Beach Energy confirmed plans to move ahead with the Moomba Central Optimisation project in South Australia’s Cooper Basin. Santos is putting up about A$357 million for the project, which aims to squeeze more than A$600 million out of capital and operating savings and push unit costs down by as much as A$3 per barrel of oil equivalent—a metric that rolls oil and gas volumes together.
Chief Executive Kevin Gallagher described the plan as demonstrating “operational excellence and capital efficiency,” saying it should keep the Cooper Basin producing for longer. Santos added the project might trim its Scope 1 emissions—meaning its own operational pollution—by over 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. Market Index Data API
Santos’s January update is still on investors’ desks. Back then, the company reported that Darwin LNG’s first cargo since the restart was being prepared for shipment to Japan. Alaska’s Pikka oil project, meanwhile, was described as almost finished, with management standing by guidance for a potential 30% production bump in 2026. Citi’s Tom Wallington pointed out that the cargo’s departure might “allay investor concerns” around the tricky commissioning period—the last stage before hitting full operations. Reuters
Beach Energy was last seen at A$1.167 on Friday, with Woodside closing out the session at about A$31.04. These two, along with Santos, serve as key benchmarks for locals tracking shifts in oil or LNG prices.
The trade looks shaky. Goldman Sachs flagged that Brent might slip to the low $70s before year-end. Their analysts say it would take a two-month shutdown in the Strait of Hormuz—a critical passageway for roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas—to push their Q4 average forecast up to $93 a barrel from $71.
Santos isn’t done with internal shakeups. Back in February, the company announced plans to trim roughly 10% of its workforce and take a close look at its Australian oil and gas holdings after underlying profit tumbled 25% in 2025. Costs, project execution, and the asset mix are squarely in focus, with crude prices still offering some support for the shares.
