Annual Report 200426
Late in 2004 Santos published
First Steps: Sustainability Review,
the Company’s first standalone
publication on this topic. 
It describes how Santos is
implementing the principles 
of sustainability in the areas 
of corporate governance, the
environment, social responsibility
and economic performance.
This was a significant milestone
for Santos as it represents a
starting point for the collection
of data and the ongoing
measurement of performance 
in the area of sustainability.
Communicating with stakeholders
is an important activity and the
publication of the Sustainability
Review is a further extension 
of Santos’ commitment in this
regard. Santos applies considerable
resources to the communication
effort and aims to present
information in a clear and concise
manner in order to generate a
greater understanding of the
business by its stakeholders. 
Santos has been recognised for
its achievements in this area.
Santos’ 2003 Annual Report 
was featured as an example 
of best practice reporting in
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Trends 
in Corporate Reporting 2004
publication. Reports from
companies worldwide are
considered in compiling this
publication and they must 
meet specified criteria. This is 
the third time a Santos annual
report has been featured. Santos
was also awarded a 2004 Silver
Award for Excellence in Annual
Reporting for the 2002 Annual
Report by the Australasian
Reporting Awards. 
Receiving independent recognition
for these activities serves as 
a reference point for Santos’
desire to continually improve
communication performance.
Santos has been listed as 
an inaugural member of the
Australian SAM Sustainability
Index (AuSSI). The AuSSI tracks
the performance of around 70
Australian companies that lead
their industry in terms of
economic, environmental and 
social criteria. The index is
calculated daily by Dow Jones
Indexes and published in The
Australian newspaper.
Following is an overview of
progress and achievements in the
area of sustainability for 2004. 
SAFETY IMPROVING
The health and safety of employees
is of paramount concern to Santos.
Santos delivered another year of
improvement in 2004 and achieved
its lowest total recordable case
frequency rate of 6.4. 
Further improvements were also
made with the implementation 
of the Environment, Health and
Safety Management System
standards, with Santos operations
undergoing full assessments
against standards for the 
first time. 
The results demonstrated
considerable improvement 
over the baseline assessments
conducted in 2003 with steady
progress in the implementation 
of the procedures, processes and
tools needed to achieve the
requirements of the standards.
Process safety capability which
deals with plant and equipment
integrity assurance, design and
construction, and maintenance, 
is being developed through 
the formation of a new set of
standards to be incorporated 
into the health and safety
management system. 
The safety focus in 2005 will be
on finalising a comprehensive set
of hazard standards which outline
the required controls to ensure
that hazards encountered across
Santos’ operations and activities
are well managed. 
POSITIONING THE WORKFORCE
FOR THE FUTURE
Santos commenced a major
company-wide transformational
change program in late 2003. 
The program was designed to
significantly improve Santos’
performance in four areas: key
business processes, financial
performance, organisation
structure and company culture. 
Reorganising and simplifying the
Company’s structure was one of
the major outcomes and in May
2004 Santos began operating
under a new functionally-based
organisation structure.
The new structure is designed 
to support the exploration-
focused growth strategy. 
It mirrors the ‘conveyor belt’
lifecycle of an exploration 
and production company where
exploration success leads 
to commercialisation and
development activity and finally
revenue-generating production. 
It also follows the principle that