Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) shares are slipping into the red on Thursday giving back some modest early morning gains.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) oil and gas stock are currently trading for $7.185 apiece, down 0.21%.
Twelve months ago, Santos shares closed the day trading for $7.97 apiece.
As you can see on the chart below, that puts the one-year loss at 9.8%.
Why have Santos shares dropped over the year?
A big retrace in the oil price, and gas prices, has been one of the factors pressuring Santos shares over the year.
Twelve months ago, Brent crude oil was trading for US$103 a barrel. After topping out above US$123 a barrel in early September, Brent is currently fetching US$77 a barrel. That's down more than 25% in a year.
ASX 200 energy investors may also be a bit jittery about Santos' growth plans.
Specifically, the outlook for the company's $5.8 billion Barossa gas project, located in the Timor Sea.
Santos appears determined to press ahead. But tighter government environmental restrictions on new gas projects could hit Barossa hard, as it's reported to have an exceptionally high carbon dioxide content.
Have the dividends been worth it?
Which brings us back to Santos shares and dividends.
Investors who've held the stock for a full year will have seen the company's share price fall by 9.8%. However, they'll also have received both of the past 12 months unfranked dividends.
Santos board declared an interim dividend of 10.9 cents per share. That will have landed in shareholders' bank accounts on 22 September.
Santos shares delivered a final dividend of 22.4 cents per share. That was paid out on 29 March.
All told the ASX 200 energy stock paid out a total of 33.3 cents per share in dividends over the year, which we'll round off to 33 cents.
If we add that to the current share price rounded up to $7.19, we arrive at an accumulated value of $7.52 per share. And remember, the stock was trading for $7.97 a year ago.
So, while the company's dividend payments have lowered the losses for shareholders, even with those payouts Santos shares' accumulated value is down 5.6% over the year.
