30 March 2022
Buried on page 40 of Santos’ new Climate Change Report is a damning chart, showing the value of the company’s oil and gas portfolio would drop by around half under the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario.
Santos projects this fall could be offset by opportunities in carbon capture and storage (CSS) and hydrogen and ammonia (produced from gas with CCS, rather than truly clean fuels produced from renewable energy).
However, the only way for Santos to properly manage the massive downside risk facing its oil and gas business as the world moves to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement is to drop its plans to spend billions on oil and gas growth projects and instead manage down production in line with global climate goals.
Market Forces Asset Management Campaigner Will van de Pol said, “Santos claims to support the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. But its plans to spend billions on increasing oil and gas production completely undermine this claim, and will actually see the company’s overall emissions increase over the next decade.”
Market Forces has filed a shareholder resolution to be voted on at Santos’ 3 May AGM, calling on the company to manage down oil and gas production in line with a net zero by 2050 pathway. Market Forces is also calling on investors to vote against Santos’ Climate Change Report and against the reelection of director Peter Hearl, who chairs the board’s Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability Committee.
Santos’ Climate Report also continues to peddle the myth that increasing gas exports to Asia will reduce emissions by displacing coal, despite this claim being contradicted by a CSIRO study that was commissioned and then withheld from the public by fellow Australian gas industry giant Woodside.
“Investors should be ropable over Santos’ attempt to pull the wool over their eyes when it comes to climate action and the risks a Paris-aligned energy transition poses to its oil and gas expansion plans. Those investors must take the critical opportunity provided by this year’s AGM to demand the company change course in order to protect shareholder value.”
Market Forces’ shareholder resolution also seeks to ensure employee transition and asset decommissioning obligations are adequately planned and resourced as production falls in line with a net zero by 2050 pathway.
As shown in the charts below:
- Santos plans to spend up to ~AUD$17 billion on oil and gas growth projects, equating to 63% of the company’s current market capitalisation
- Even adopting conservative estimates, Santos’ increasing production plans are likely to see the company’s overall annual emissions sit more than 20% above a combined Santos and Oil Search 2020 baseline through 2026-2029, before falling back to ~7% above 2020 levels in 2030 (assuming the company’s P’nyang LNG project does not commence by then)
- Santos’ analysis shows its oil and gas portfolio would halve in value under the IEA’s net zero by 2050 scenario
