Shares in Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) have been flourishing this year, with most of the company's 2021 gains appearing in the last 30 days. At the time of writing, the Santos share price is trading at $7.34, down 1.87%.
Interestingly, while the Santos share price has been gaining, the oil and gas producer has been quiet on the news front. It hasn't released any price-sensitive news to the ASX since late April.
So, what's been driving Santos shares upwards? Let's take a look.
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The month that's been for Santos
The last 30 days haven't exactly been a smooth ride for Santos but the price of crude oil has been hitting multi-year highs.
Last week, Santos' managing director Kevin Gallagher told the annual oil and gas industry (APPEA) conference that investors and lenders alike were abandoning western oil and gas industries.
Gallagher also told the conference that decarbonisation strategies, like carbon capture and storage, sequestration, and using natural gas to produce hydrogen, were critical for Australia's fossil fuel industries. He said:
Without decarbonisation… the window of opportunity for developing our oil and gas resources is rapidly closing…
Something [all oil and gas industry participants] can all agree on is that a net-zero future is critical for our industry.
However, despite Gallagher's warning, the Santos share price has been soaring alongside energy commodity prices.
Just yesterday, the Santos share price rocketed 2.75% while oil hit its highest price since 2018.
The Brent crude oil price has gained 12.3% over the last 30 days.
Today, a barrel of oil is worth $74.72, 0.4% less than it was yesterday.
Natural gas futures have also increased 11.4% since this time last month.
Santos share price snapshot
It goes without saying that the Santos share price has been performing well lately.
Currently, the company's shares are 14% higher than they were at the start of the year. They have also gained 35% since this time last year.
The energy giant has a market capitalisation of around $15 billion, with approximately 2 billion shares outstanding.
