The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is on the rise in early trade after a production update from the Aussie oil and gas giant this morning. At the time of writing, the Santos share price has edged 0.99% higher to $7.15.
Let's take a look at what the company announced.
What's driving the Santos share price?
Santos provided an update on production at its Ningaloo Vision floating production storage and offloading vessel (Ningaloo Vision). This comes after scheduled vessel maintenance in Singapore.
Ningaloo Vision, which ties together several oil fields off the Western Australian coast, has now ramped-up production again. The offshore vessel is expected to achieve production of 10,000 barrels per day in the coming weeks.
Santos managing director and CEO Kevin Gallagher said the vessel's return to production sets the company up for the next stage of production from the Van Gogh oil field. Santos has a 52.5% interest in the Van Gogh-Coniston-Navara project with the remaining 47.5% held by Inpex.
How has Santos performed recently?
The Santos share price has surged higher in the last 12 months after a large share price collapse in March 2020.
Oil prices plummeted last year as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Demand for energy collapsed as widespread border closures and localised lockdowns reduced usage in key industries like travel and manufacturing.
That saw the Santos share price plummet lower, which somewhat skews the story of the company's recent performance.
Foolish takeaway
The Santos share price is responding positively after today's update from Ningaloo Vision, with the vessel expected to add 10,000 barrels per day.
According to Bloomberg, however, overnight the WTI and Brent crude oil prices fell 4.4% and 4% lower, respectively. WTI closed at US$58.49 per barrel while the Brent crude oil price fell to US$61.82 per barrel. This could be subduing the impact on the company's share price of its positive update today.
