The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is trading higher on Thursday following the release of its full year results.
At the time of writing the energy producer's shares are up 0.5% to $8.21.
How did Santos perform in FY 2019?
For the 12 months ended December 31, Santos reported product sales of US$4,033 million and EBITDAX of US$2,457 million. This was a 10% and 14% increase, respectively, on the prior corresponding period.
This was driven by a 20% increase in sales volumes to 94.5 mmboe and a 10% reduction in unit production costs to US$7.24 per boe, which offset weaker realised prices.
Things weren't quite as positive for its underlying profit. That fell 1% over the 12 months to US$719 million. This excludes the impacts of asset acquisitions, disposals and impairments, and commodity hedging. Reported net profit after tax grew 7% to US$674 million.
Free cash flow came in 13% higher than in FY 2018 at US$1,138 million. This allowed the Santos board to increase its full year dividends to 11 U.S. cents per share. Which was a 13% increase on FY 2018's dividends.
Santos' managing director and chief executive officer, Kevin Gallagher, was pleased with the company's performance in FY 2019.
He said: "Today's announcement of full-year results demonstrates the strength of our cash-generative operating model."
"Consistent application of our disciplined operating model continues to deliver cost reductions and efficiencies, with normalised production costs down 8% to US$6.97/boe. The year was highlighted by record onshore drilling performance, lower unit costs, successful integration of the Quadrant acquisition and significant progress on our diversified portfolio of growth projects," he added.
Outlook.
In FY 2020 Santos expects total production of 79 mmboe to 87 mmboe, with sales volumes of 99 mmboe to 107 mmboe. The latter will be an increase of 4.8% to 13.2% year on year.
Unit production costs for the base business are expected in the range of US$7.00 to US$7.40 per boe. Overall cost guidance will be provided upon the completion of the ConocoPhillips acquisition
