STO, WDS: Why are these ASX energy stocks grabbing investors' attention?

Highlights

• Oil stocks like Santos and Woodside Energy traded in green zone today (19 August)
• Other energy stocks like Beach Energy, Paladin Energy and Melbana Energy also gained today.
• Oil stocks performed well mainly because of the increase in crude oil prices.

ASX 200  opened on a flat note today (19 August) and gained momentum during the mid-day trading session but it seems that ASX 200 would close the last day of the week in red territory.

The Benchmark ASX 200 was 0.013% down at 7,111.90 points at 2.46 PM AEST. But sectorally, energy was the best performing sector today at 2.47 PM AEST as it was up 3.74%.

Notably, oil stocks like Santos Limited (ASX:STO) and Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) were trading in the green zone at 2:46 PM AEST.

No new announcement was made by these companies, and it seems that the hare price rise could be a sector-wide trend.

Other energy stocks like Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), Paladin Enery (ASX:PDN) and Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) were also trading higher.

Therefore, we may certainly conclude that these movements can be attributed to the one major factor affecting ASX 200 oil stocks: the price hike of crude oil during the early trade on Friday.

In this article, we at Kalkine Media will take a quick look at the performance of Santos and Woodside on ASX.

Santos Limited

Santos declared on Wednesday (17 August) that it had made a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the Pikka Phase 1 oil project. The project is valued at US$2.6 billion gross (US$1.3 billion Santos-share) and it is located on Alaska's North Slope.

Image Source: © Teriyaki999 | Megapixl.com

Simultaneously, the oil company shared its half-yearly results also for 2022.

Santos announced a record underlying profit of US$1.3 billion and a free cash flow of US$1.7 billion. Due to increased global energy demand and interest in PNG LNG due to the Oil Search merger, the data show much higher oil and LNG prices than during the corresponding period.

The company's EBITDAX increased by 122% to US$2,731 million from US$1,231 million in 1HFY21. Santos recorded its sales revenues of US$3,766 million and PAT of US$1,167 million.

Image Source: © 2022 Kalkine Media ®

Data Source- Company announcement dated 17 August 2022

Meanwhile, Santos’ shares were trading at AU$7.50 each, up 6.08% on ASX at 2.48 PM AEST.

Woodside Energy Group Ltd

Woodside had announced its second-quarter report for the period ended 30 June 2022 on 21 July 2022.

Following the conclusion of the merger with BHP's petroleum business, the oil company reported that production was 60.2% higher and sales volume was 50.8% higher than the previous quarter. This was primarily attributable to integrating the BHP petroleum assets from 1 June 2022.

Key highlights of Q2 2022

• Delivered production of 33.8 MMboe, an increase of 60% from Q1 2022.
• Sales volume delivered was 35.8 MMboe, up 51% from Q1 2022.
• The average realised price for delivered goods was US$95 per barrel of oil.
• Achieved US$3,438 million in sales, a 44% increase over Q1 2022.
• Changed the name of the company to Woodside Energy Group Ltd.

Meanwhile, Woodside shares were trading at AU$33.42 each, up 3.92% on ASX at 2.49 PM AEST.