Santos Ltd.

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Santos Limited

Type	Public (ASX:STO)
Founded	18 March 1954
Headquarters	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Key people	David Knox, Acting CEO
Industry	Energy
Products	gas and petroleum exploration; the production, treatment and marketing of natural gas, crude oil, condensate, naphtha and liquid petroleum gas; transportation by pipeline of crude oil
Revenue	▲ $2.769 billion AUD (2006, [1])
Net income	▼ $643 million AUD (2006)
Employees	~1,434 (2005)
Website	www.santos.com.au

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, Bangla Desh, 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, amortizations 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.