APPEA 2025 Conference and Exhibition

Kevin Gallagher was appointed CEO and managing director of Santos in 2016, bringing more than three decades international experience in the oil and gas industry.

Mr Gallagher has led significant transformation and growth of the company, delivering a competitive advantage in the energy evolution. Under his leadership, Santos has become one of Australia’s largest independent gas, LNG and liquids producer, with high quality assets and resources in Australia, PNG, Alaska and Timor-Leste.

Commencing his career in the oil and gas industry as a drilling engineer in Scotland working with Mobil in the North Sea, Mr Gallagher migrated to Australia to join Woodside in 1998. He was Chief Executive Officer at Clough Limited, an engineering and construction company, from 2011 until his appointment at Santos.

At Santos, Mr Gallagher has led growth through successful mergers and acquisitions building a diverse portfolio of strategic long-life assets, and is now currently focused on organic growth through delivery of the Barossa Gas and Pikka Liquids Projects. Under Mr Gallagher’s leadership, Santos has also successfully commissioned and brought online Australia’s first large-scale onshore carbon capture and storage project at Moomba, which has the capacity to store 1.7mtpa of CO2e – the emissions equivalent of taking 700,000 cars off the road a year.

Mr Gallagher has implemented a disciplined low-cost operating model and strengthened the Company’s balance sheet, creating a strong cash-generative business that has delivered a series of record results. He has also positioned Santos to leverage the critical role of gas in delivering energy security through the energy transition to Net Zero emissions.

He is a director Australian Energy Producers and the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association.

Presentation details

Plenary 3
In Conversation with Kevin Gallagher, Santos
Wednesday 28 May 2025
8:30am – 10:15am

Detailed program can be found here.