PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Oil and gas major Santos has reported a slight production decline for the quarter ended March, driven by planned shutdowns.

The ASX-listed company noted that production for the three months to March amounted to 12.1-million barrels of oil equivalent – a 2% decline on the previous corresponding quarter and down by 8% on the previous quarter.

Gas production for the period under review was in line with the previous corresponding period, at 52.8 PJ, or 9.1-million barrels of oil equivalent, with the Otway basin production offset by lower production from the Cooper basin, owing to a major planned shutdown.

Crude oil production was 19% below the previous quarter, at two-million barrels of oil, owing to the planned dry-docking of Mutineer-Exeter and lower oil production from the Stag and Cooper basin operations.

Meanwhile, sales for the quarter were down 5% on the previous corresponding period and 16% lower than the preceding six months, to 13-million barrels of oil equivalent, raising sales revenue of $713-million.

Looking ahead to the full year, Santos CEO David Knox noted that the company was likely to produce between 53-million and 57-million barrels of oil equivalent.

“The progress on our Fletcher Finucane project, offshore Western Australia, has been pleasing and we look forward to first oil over the next few months to add to our growing Western Australian business.”

Knox noted that construction was also progressing well on the company’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Gladstone projects remaining on track for first LNG in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The PNG LNG project is now over 80% complete and would have the capacity to deliver some 6.9-million tons a year. The Gladstone LNG project was over 50% complete and would have a nameplate capacity of 7.8-million tons a year.

Santos expected to spend some $4-billion on capital projects this year.

“We continue to build our position in Asia. During the quarter, we sanctioned the Peluang gas project in Indonesia, continued construction of the Dua oil project in Vietnam and spudded our first coal-seam gas well in South Sumatra, Indonesia,” Knox said.