You can be assured the SA and Federal government will force the...

You can be assured the SA and Federal government will force the foreign entity to continue to have Santos HQed here and in SA. Can't exactly use transfer pricing arrangements besides a bit of interest expense, small amounts of management and some maybe marketing to lower its taxation rate. Royalties remain the same. So overall besides maybe some jobs going, it won't change a thing. Santos has sacked an utter crapload of staff anyway, given the dire position they were/are in.

Santos isn't large enough or have national interest to be honest. Woodside, BHP and RIO are different leagues and many times larger. They will never allow a foreign TO of those. Can't see a TO being a problem so long as it's still HQed in SA for STO. Sheet, if they promise an expansion of jobs for new projects then I am sure it'll sweeten up the FIRB.