By David Winning


SYDNEY--Santos Ltd. lowered its guidance for oil and natural gas production this year as it works to restart the John Brookes platform in Western Australia following an earlier gas leak.

Santos said it now expects output of 89 million-96 million barrels of oil equivalent in the 12 months through December, down from a prior forecast for 91 million-98 million BOE.

The company said it now expects the John Brookes platform to be offline until late January or early February. The issue has also delayed the start of production from the Spartan field, with Santos now expecting that to happen in the second quarter.

The temporary shutdown of the John Brookes platform weighed on production in the final quarter of 2022, with Santos reporting output of 25.6 million BOE, down slightly on the July-September period. Annual output of 103.2 million BOE, which included Bayu-Undan volumes on a net entitlement basis, was at the lower end of an earlier 103 million-106 million BOE guidance range.

Santos said its sales revenue totaled US$1.9 billion in the fourth quarter, bringing 2022 sales revenue to a record US$7.8 billion, up 65% on the year before. It also said annual free cash flow more than doubled to around US$3.6 billion.


Write to David Winning at david.winning@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-18-23 1705ET