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Shares in oil and gas giant Santos (ASX:STO) are on watch today following the release of the company’s H1 FY22 results.

Santos benefitted from soaring oil prices to report NPAT surged 300% to US$1.267 billion, free cash flow tripled to US$1.708 billion and revenue jumped 85% to US$3.766 billion. An interim dividend was also announced with growth of 38% to 7.6 US cents per share.

The impressive results for Santos were driven by a large increase in the price of oil and LNG, record sales volume of oil equivalent, record production and the company’s merger with Oil Search.

Sales volume and production guidance have been maintained in their respective ranges for FY22.

Today, Santos also announced a final investment decision has been taken to proceed with the US$2.6 billion gross Pikka Phase 1 oil project located on the North Slope of Alaska, which is expected to produce 80,000 barrels a day of oil gross with first oil anticipated in 2026. The oil and gas giant also committed to delivering a net-zero project from first oil at the Pikka project.

Despite the strong results, Santos’ performance comes in just short of expectations with Citi having forecast an NPAT of US$1.33 billion.

In terms of broker responses, Citi has maintained a buy rating on Santos with a price target of $8.60 per share, and UBS has also maintained its buy rating on the oil and gas giant with a price target of $9.65 per share.

Santos shares are trading more than 2% lower today, however this may also be due to weakness in the energy sector following declining oil prices overnight.