Australia's Santos posts 7% fall in first-quarter sales revenue

(Reuters) - Australian oil and gas producer Santos posted a 7% fall in first-quarter sales revenue on Thursday, hurt by lower crude sales volumes and weak realised prices for domestic gas and oil-linked LNG sales contracts.

Global LNG prices have tumbled since China's first 15% retaliatory levy shut off U.S. imports in February, triggering a cascade of cargo re-routing while mounting trade tensions spark fears of demand erosion across major gas markets facing potential economic contraction.

The average realised price for Santos' liquefied natural gas plunged to $11.57 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down from last year's $12.68 per mmBtu and below a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $11.46 per mmBtu, according to Jarden's data compilation.

Sales volumes of crude oil for the quarter came in at 1.3 million barrels, down from 1.5 million barrels a year ago.

The company attributed the dip in sales volumes to no crude oil being lifted in the quarter from its Pyrenees project off Western Australia, which is operated by co-owner Woodside Energy, along with lower third-party purchases.

The country's second-largest independent gas producer said sales revenue for the three months ended March 31 came in at $1.29 billion, missing a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $1.32 billion. It reported $1.40 billion in sales revenue a year ago.

(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao and Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona)

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