STO Well positioned, page-416

First time I've tuned in to the STO threads.

I have what is, for my family, a fairly substantial holding of STO. I worked as a professional and in low to middle management for STO for over 9 years.

Having a substantial holding in STO, I follow how it is going.

I have to tell you what I know.

The company was saved by massive cost cuts when the boom ended circa 2015-16. Since then the internal culture has been pretty toxic. Of course , they have also grown significantly since the near-death experience, by virtue of acquisitions.

However, they face the significant existential threat of decarbonisation. Who is acutely aware of that ? STO management and the industry itself. Take the current TV gas advertising campaign. Or the Company's own focus on using renewables for its operations ! and it's PR emphasis on Moomba CCS.

Punters on here may rail against government or NGOs but unfortunately your parochialism is blinkering and you're missing a major business threat

Gallagher is a hard nosed bean counting type, non-complex, tough dude, but a guy to take in complex projects and transitions? Some of his public comments reveal how little he really understands about the challenge ( re injecting CO2 is easy !). Those staff that remain are operational disciple types and Gallagher hires. Many smart grads on big bucks. Woodside is majorly outperforming them dividend wise ( and arguably growth wise) and can lean on technical expertise which STO may not have.

Hydrogen will not scale up in any short timeframe. It is costly and technically problematic. Biomethane is a pipedream requiring a whole new infrastructure and is many decades away. People will electrify, as they should, and gas will be used for some power and industry heat.

Oil is a feedstock for modern life and will be around for a long time. Gas not quite so. Santos is more reliant on gas.

Best outcome for shareholders may be a takeover which given recent underperformance is not out of the question. Technical expertise, risk-taking and big funding will be required for the Company to survive alone for another few decades.