The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price ended the week lower after the company abandoned its plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.
Shares in Santos finished Friday's session trading for $7.02 – 1.26% lower than last week's close.
Santos is the fourth energy company to hand in its licence to explore the area in recent years.
Let's take a closer look at the latest news from the oil and gas producers.
Santos leaves the Bight
Santos confirmed yesterday it and its joint venture partner Murphy Oil (NYSE: MUR) have ceased exploring the Great Australian Bight.
The joint venture had previously held a licence to explore a 16,525 square kilometre area in the Great Australian Bight since 2013.
The news likely didn't help the Santos share price. It spent all of Friday in the red.
A Santos spokesperson told The Motley Fool Australia the companies have surrendered their licence as they've completed the joint venture's work program obligations, saying:
The Santos strategy is to build and grow around our five core long-life natural gas assets and the Great Australian Bight falls outside these assets.
Equinor, BP, and Chevron have all previously pulled out of drilling for oil in the Bight.
Bight Petroleum is the last company standing with an exploration licence for the Great Australian Bight.
Drilling in the area has faced intense criticism from environmental groups, with Greenpeace finding an oil spill in the Bight could affect Australian coast lines as far north as Newcastle.
Santos is still moving forward with offshore gas and oil projects in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Santos share price snapshot
Despite a poor week on the ASX, the Santos share price has been performing well this year.
It has gained 9.1% since the beginning of 2021. It has also increased by 31.2% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $14.7 billion, with approximately 2 billion shares outstanding.
