LNG

Santos Ltd, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas export plants and a main shareholder in Papua New Guinea LNG assets, has seen its shares surge on take-over speculation, separately involving the Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

One of Australia’s leading chief executives, Kevin Gallagher of liquefied natural gas and energy company Santos, has been given permission to undertake flexible working arrangements.

Origin Energy, the Australian upstream supplier to the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland, said it expected a sizeable increase in underlying earnings from its utilities business, though signalled possible lower coal-seam-gas output affecting APLNG because of weather issues.

Australian oil and gas company Senex Energy said it was supplying more domestic natural gas to the East Coast market in Australia at least for the next two or three months as the Gladstone LNG export plant has reduced its coal-seam-gas needs from the onshore Surat Basin for LNG production.

Origin Energy, the Australian utility and upstream supplier for the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland, whose other shareholders are ConocoPhillips and Chinese major Sinopec, said plant profitability was unlikely to be affected by the global downturn.