Santos Limited
(ASX:STO) has confirmed it will develop the $490 million Fletcher Finucane oil project.
The company says first production is expected in the second half of 2013 at the project in the Carnarvon Basin, off the northwest coast of Western Australia.
Its share of capital expenditure on the development will be $236 million, with the remaining costs to be covered by joint venture participants Kufpec Australia and JX Nippon Oil and Gas.
The project will be linked to Santos' nearby floating production, storage and offloading facility at Mutineer Exeter.
The transaction takes Santos' interest in the Fletcher Finucane project to 48 per cent.
In the 2011 financial year Santos' boosted its net profit by 115 per cent to $504 million.
