Santos names new CFO, lists on PNGX

Australian energy giant Santos announced on Monday that Anthea McKinnell is the company's new Chief Financial Officer effective on the first day of next year. McKinnell will replace Anthony Neilson, who has held the role since December 2016.

The announcement came on the same day that Santos said it had successfully listed on the official list of the Papua New Guinea’s National Stock Exchange (PNGX), following approval by the Board of PNGX of Santos’ listing application as an exempt foreign entity. 

The appointment of McKinnell, who has been with Santos as Deputy Chief Financial Officer since 2019 and previously spent 13 years at Woodside in several senior executive roles, is aimed at positioning the merged entity as a strong contender in the global energy landscape.

“I am pleased to announce Anthea as an internal successor in the role of CFO at this pivotal moment for Santos as we finalise a merger that expands our business regionally,” Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said in a statement.

 “I also acknowledge the outstanding contribution Anthony Neilson has made to Santos as CFO over the past five years, playing a significant role in the company’s turnaround, subsequent growth and acquisitions,” Gallagher said.

McKinnell gained deep experience of the Santos business during the past two years, including playing a key role leading the successful a US $1 billion US144A bond transaction in April 2021, integration of the ConocoPhillips asset purchase and the current Oil Search merger. Neilson and McKinnell would begin a handover immediately, the company said. Neilson will stay with the company as Chief Commercial Officer initially based in Sydney, where he will play a key role in overseeing the transition of the Oil Search business.

At the beginning of September, Santos and Oil Search entered into a definitive agreement to merge the two companies in a deal valued at about US $6.1 billion. The merged entity, one of the 20 largest global oil and gas companies, is being valued at around US $16 billion. The merger became effective on December 10.

Following Papua New Guinea’s National Court’s approval of the scheme of arrangement for Santos’ merger with Oil Search on Sunday, Santos successfully applied to list as an ‘Exempt Foreign Company’ on the PNGX. Trading in Santos shares (listing code: STODA) on PNGX commenced on Monday, December 13, initially on a deferred settlement basis until formal trading commences on December 20.

Santos commenced exploration in PNG in 1987 and production from the SE Gobe field in 1998, and its interests in PNG today primarily relate to the PNG LNG Project. Santos’ merger with Oil Search is expected to support the development of key projects in PNG, including Papua LNG, delivering new jobs, helping to support the local economy, and continuing to support the development of and investment in PNG.

Under the terms of the merger, Oil Search shareholders will own approximately 38.5 percent of the merged entity while Santos’ shareholders will own approximately 61.5 percent.

The combined entity would have 2021 production of approximately 116 million barrels of oil equivalent, a 2P+2C resource base of 4,867 million barrels of oil equivalent, and an investment-grade balance sheet with more than $5.5 billion of liquidity to self-fund development projects. 

The merger also combines Oil Search’s operating assets in Papua New Guinea with Santos’s gas portfolio in Australia, which includes the Gladstone LNG export facility in Queensland and the Darwin LNG plant in the Northern Territory.

Santos also has a stake in the Exxon-operated PNG LNG project. Together, the companies sold 135 million barrels of oil and gas in 2020, almost half of which was LNG. The merged entity will have an output of about 318,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) this year, making it Australia's second-largest upstream producer behind the planned merger of Australian independent Woodside Petroleum and the petroleum arm of UK-Australian resources firm BHP, that is expected to create a company with a combined output of up to 550,000 boe/d.