Santos Acquires Interests in 3 Permits Offshore Australia

Santos Limited has acquired interests in three exploration license areas in the offshore waters of Western Australia and will invest approximately A$4 million in new exploration.

Santos has acquired a 100 percent interest in offshore exploration permit WA-274-P in the Browse Basin, Western Australia from a subsidiary of Genting Berhad.

Santos, as operator, has also recently been awarded exploration permit WA-338-P in the Browse Basin and WA-339-P in the Houtman Basin. This is the Company's first operated Houtman Basin acreage.

"These are exciting new areas for Santos increasing the area of our offshore Western Australian exploration acreage interests by 73 percent" said Santos Managing Director, Mr. John Ellice-Flint.

"The Browse Basin is a proven petroleum province and this new acreage strengthens our existing Browse acreage holding. The Houtman Basin, however, is relatively unexplored and opens up a whole new set of opportunities for the Company within a frontier Basin.

"Good acreage is critical to building Santos’ exploration portfolio. Our strategy is to capitalize on our existing interests as well as taking on new opportunities in frontier areas. These permits fit well within our strategy." he said.

WA-274-P is located 230 km off the WA coast and is in moderate water depths (250m to 1000m). It is adjacent to Santos' Browse Basin permit WA-281-P and Inpex's WA-285-P which contains the Brewster gas resource.

WA-338-P is located within the inner Browse Basin and is 70 km off the WA coast. WA-339-P is located in deep water (200m to greater than 2000m) and is 110 km off the WA coast.

The Joint Venture Partners for this acreage plan to spend approximately A$5.6 million over the next 2 to 3 years.

Participants in WA-338-P (Browse Basin) are Santos as operator with 71.5% and SK Corporation with 28.5%. Participants in WA-339-P (Houtman Basin) are Santos as operator with 50% and Kerr-McGee with 50%.