Coalbed bounty: the Gunnedah basin in New South Wales
Santos unveils reserves bonanza
Australian independent Santos said it had boosted total proved and probable reserve at the end of last year by 42%, or 427 million barrels of oil equivalent, year-on-year to a total 1.44 billion boe.
Santos said almost half of the reserves were earmarked for its planned liquefied natural gas projects.
Overall, the record upgrade represented a proved and probable reserves replacement ratio of 889% for 2009. The figure was net of total 2009 production of 54.4 million boe by the company and was Santos’s sixth successive annual increase in reserves.
The company said reserves were plumped by a 60% year-on-year increase in proved and probable coalbed methane reserves to 3748 petajoules (about 100 billion cubic metres), which included its first booked reserves after entering the Gunnedah basin in 2007.
It said a total of 1144 million boe of its proved and probable reserves lay in Australia, while 263 million boe was in its interests in Asia, including assets in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh.