Is selling off Santos to a foreign buyer in Australia’s national interest? First, define national interest | John Quiggin

The prospect of handing control of the energy company to overseas buyers has raised a series of concerns. But many of them are nebulous

Amid the multifarious chaos of the past week, many of us might have missed the controversy over the proposed purchase of the energy business Santos by an overseas consortium. But the proposal is likely to create big problems for Australian governments and its resolution will reveal a lot about how Australian policymakers view energy and climate policy.

Santos is one of the largest and oldest Australian producers of oil and gas, second only to Woodside Energy (its name is an acronym of South Australia and Northern Territory Oil Search). The core of its operation is the Moomba gas field in the Cooper Basin, in the north-east corner of South Australia. The company now supplies gas to the entire eastern seaboard and has assets in the Timor Sea and Papua New Guinea.

John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland's school of economics

This article originally stated that XRG was owned by the Carlyle Group and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). It was amended on 25 June 2025 to clarify that it is wholly owned by Adnoc and includes the Carlyle Group among its members