Santos is understood to have made progress on plans for asset sales overseas and is expected to deliver an update to investors when it reports its full-year earnings on Wednesday.
A sale process for its Pikka project in Alaska has been running for some time.
In recent months it has attracted strong interest because of the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine.
Major oil and gas producers from North America have been lining up for Pikka, which has been up for sale through Moelis.
A sale to ConocoPhillips, Exxon or Chevron would not come as a major surprise.
ConocoPhillips has been seen as the standout candidate to buy the asset, as it would have the most synergies, with an asset it already operates right next door. ConocoPhillips is also the state’s largest oil and gas producer.
Woodside could buy the asset, but some think this is unlikely.
The asset is seen as non-core to Santos following the $21bn merger it undertook with Oil Search last year.
Santos owns a 51 per cent interest in Pikka through its merger with Oil Search.
Repsol owns the remainder, and both owners had earlier been hoping to reduce their interests by about 15 per cent.
The project was earlier estimated to be worth between $US1.5bn and $US2bn.
A selldown of Santos’s stake in PNG LNG is also expected.
Total is the operator of the other major PNG project, Papua LNG, which is linked to PNG LNG, and it has always been considered the most logical buyer.
The expectation has been that Santos would look to sell down about 10 or 15 per cent in the asset.
Meanwhile, Santos will be hoping for a better response from investors on its results than what Beach Energy saw.
Shares in Beach Energy on Monday closed down 11 per cent on the back of disappointment over its steady dividend payout, lower-than expected annual underlying earnings of $504m and a weaker-than-expected production outlook.
But other factors worrying Beach Energy investors are that the company has declining production and growing costs at a time when it has a new and relatively inexperienced management team at the helm.
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