Santos delivers strong 2025 full year results and higher dividends

The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is in focus today after the energy company reported strong base business performance for the full year 2025, delivering $1.8 billion in free cash flow and declaring a final dividend of US 10.3 cents per share.

What did Santos report?

• Sales revenue of $4.9 billion from 93.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in sales volumes
• Underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) of $898 million
• Free cash flow from operations of $1.8 billion
• EBITDAX of $3.4 billion
• Final dividend of US 10.3 cents per share (total 2025 dividends: US 23.7 cents per share, representing $770 million)
• Unit production costs of $6.78 per boe, the lowest in a decade (excluding Bayu Undan)

What else do investors need to know?

Santos achieved record personal safety performance in 2025 and reached its 2030 emissions reduction target five years early, mainly due to its Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The company remains in a solid financial position, with gearing at 21.5% excluding leases and strong liquidity of $4.3 billion.

Operationally, Santos delivered high reliability across its key assets, commenced production at Barossa and Darwin LNG earlier than planned and within budget, and continued disciplined cost control with the best unit production costs in ten years.

What’s next for Santos?

Santos is targeting further growth with the ramp up of Pikka phase 1 expected to deliver first oil by late Q1 2026 and reach full output in Q2. The company has also indicated a head count reduction of around 10% to rightsize the business as major projects become part of the base.

Guidance for 2026 is unchanged, with production and sales volumes expected in the range of 101 to 111 mmboe, unit production costs of $6.95 to $7.45 per boe, and total capital expenditure of approximately $1.95 to $2.15 billion. Santos is also pursuing new growth and decarbonisation opportunities to further strengthen its portfolio.

Santos share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, Santos shares have declined 3%, trailing the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) which has risen 6% over the same period.

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The post Santos delivers strong 2025 full year results and higher dividends appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Laura Stewart has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips. This article was prepared with the assistance of Large Language Model (LLM) tools for the initial summary of the company announcement. Any content assisted by AI is subject to our robust human-in-the-loop quality control framework, involving thorough review, substantial editing, and fact-checking by our experienced writers and editors holding appropriate credentials. The Motley Fool Australia stands behind the work of our editorial team and takes ultimate responsibility for the content published by The Motley Fool Australia.