Australian Gas Exporter Santos Streamlines Firm to Cut Costs

Santos Ltd. is restructuring the company’s oil and gas business in order to cut costs, according to an internal notice seen by Bloomberg, after a string of stymied takeover bids in recent years that have raised pressure to increase shareholder returns.

The company’s Australian and Papua New Guinean assets will report to four regional business units, instead of having individual management teams, according to executives familiar with the situation and an email sent by Brett Darley, Santos’ chief operating officer for Australia and PNG upstream oil and gas. The executives asked not to be named as the announcement is not public.