Santos Ltd. is Australia's third largest oil and gas exploration company. Its name was an acronym for South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search. The company's core business was built on gas and oil discoveries in the Cooper Basin, predominantly spanning north-east South Australia and south-west Queensland. These gas reserves are the main source of natural gas to Australia's eastern states. Santos is the primary venture partner, and operator, of natural gas processing facilities at Moomba (in South Australia) and Ballera (in Queensland), and pipelines connecting those facilities with Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Rockhampton, and Mount Isa. The company also participates in on- and off-shore oil and gas exploration and production ventures throughout Australia, in the Timor Gap, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan. Santos has its headquarters in Adelaide. It also has offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Jakarta. Santos's production for the first half of 2006 was 28.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisations and exploration expenses for the period was AUD $1.1b, representing after tax profit of AUD $370m, an increase of 28 percent over the corresponding period in 2005. In mid-2006, it had a market capitalisation of AUD $6.8 billion, making it one of Australia's top 50 companies. Santos is involved in many Australian community activities, such as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and sponsoring local university projects.
Sidoarjo mud flowSantos owned 18% of a project that was drilling in the area of the Sidoarjo mud flow when the disaster occurred and the company has put aside $US79 million towards the cleanup.1 See alsoExternal linksReferences
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