The proposed $36 billion takeover of Santos by a consortium led by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil giant ADNOC woill be a major loss for Australia — if approved it’s a reckless surrender of even more critical national assets with the misguided aim of being an open investment location at the time the world is closing ranks.
The Foreign Investment Review Board must act decisively. This is not simply a business deal — it’s a test of whether Australia values strategic sovereignty or continues to auction it off to the highest bidder.
Disguised as a windfall for shareholders, this deal would undermine Australia’s energy security, strip the ASX of one of its last heavyweight industrials, and hand critical infrastructure to a foreign government.
Santos isn’t just another resource company. It controls vital energy assets — including the Darwin and Gladstone LNG plants and key reserves in the Beetaloo Basin. Selling this infrastructure to a foreign state-owned entity compromises our ability to control energy supply, pricing, and emissions strategy at a time when global energy markets are volatile and Australia is still defining its transition to renewables.
Even more alarming is the precedent this sets. Once Santos is gone, what’s left of Australia’s major industrial base on the ASX? Already hollowed out by private equity and offshore takeovers, the local market risks becoming a tech-and-banking echo chamber. Santos represents one of the last remaining blue-chip, capital-intensive companies in the energy and resources sector. Its loss would accelerate the decline of the ASX’s diversity and global relevance.
Proponents of the deal tout a 28% premium for investors. But that’s a short-term sugar hit with long-term hangover. Once foreign entities own our energy pipelines, processing hubs and gas fields, Australians lose control — and future governments lose levers of policy.
Selling Santos would be a historic mistake. One we may only realise when it’s far too late to buy it back.
