Protestors disrupt TDU as Santos gas project loads cargo
South Australia’s largest company has commenced loading gas from its new Barossa project in the Northern Territory as its fourth quarter results are announced, showing a dip in sales revenue.
But as the positive news hit the ASX, protestors were busy disrupting the start of the Tour Down Under this morning as part of a campaign to get the world-renowned cycling event to “dump” Santos as its major sponsor.
Wearing t-shirts declaring “DUMP SANTOS”, the protestors ran onto The Parade at Norwood before Stage Two of the international sporting event started.
Conservation Council SA, along with Extinction Rebellion, have been campaigning for the TDU to distance itself from Santos, with online comments from the conservation council saying “gas is a dirty fossil fuel and one of the biggest drivers of the climate crisis”.
“Santos is a giant gas company with plans for THREE massive new gas projects,” Conservation Council SA’s website reads.
“We must break our politics free of Santos.”
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Santos has been contacted for comment.
Away from the protest spotlight, Santos’ first LNG cargo from its NT gas project has been sold and will be delivered to Japan.
The massive floating factory extracts gas from a field off the coast of Darwin. The $4.7 billion project received its first gas in September last year.
Santos’ BW Opal is one of the most advanced floating production units ever constructed. At 358m long and 64m wide, Opal includes accommodation for up to 140 people and can handle up to 850 million cubic feet of gas per day.
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Santos today also announced its fourth quarter results, detailing it generated $563 million in cash flow for the period, up 30 per cent on the prior quarter, and $2.7 billion for the full year.
Sales revenue for the entirety of 2025 was $7.3 billion, down from $8 billion the year prior. This was generated from sales volumes of 93.5 million barrels of oil.
Managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said the company’s focus on “operational excellence” underpinned the company’s performance in 2025.
“The fourth quarter lifted free cash flow for the full year to approximately USD$1.8 billion, a strong result in a year of relatively soft commodity prices for the industry, which demonstrates the value of our focus on margin in our marketing and trading activities,” he said.
“The performance of the base business has been a real highlight in 2025, with strong production despite the impact of the biggest floods in the Cooper Basin since the 1970s.
“Santos now has a strong platform for production growth with Barossa’s first LNG cargo currently loading at Darwin.”
He said the company had taken a “very considered approach” to the final stages of the Barossa project following two connection failures of the utilities and firewater mains systems.
“A campaign to strengthen all similar connections…was undertaken which caused delays of approximately two months to our production ramp up schedule,” Gallagher said.
“While this was disappointing our aim to commission the facilities and to identify and rectify any vulnerabilities to support our objective of achieving a high reliability operation for the long term.”
Meanwhile, the company’s project in Alaska is 98 per cent completed and “nearing completion”.
The project is on track for first oil late in the first quarter of 2026. Once at full rates, both Barossa and Pikka are expected to lift the company’s production by around 25 to 30 per cent by 2027 compared to 2024 levels.
“We are also moving close to first production from Pikka, positioning the company to deliver sustainable returns to our shareholders and continue to reinvest in the business to grow production,” Gallagher said.
Santos shares are up 2.06 per cent in early trading today.
