Energean plc

welcome to the energy and half year 2025 results webinar this session is led by matthias rios ceo and panos benos cfo currently all participants are on mute there will be a q a session at the end i want to pass over to matthias ria go ahead good morning everyone and thank you for joining our call today um we have been through some uh challenging times in the first half of 2025

but our business remains resilient in strong and uh... i think this is testament to the and uh... allow us to get to record production of a hundred and seventy oh which uh... is producing at the moment at maximum capacity for the last months without uh... interruptions The only effect we had in the first half was from the forced shutdown of two weeks that the government imposed on us and then obviously we had a short period to be able to ramp back up but we were able to get back up and enjoy the strong season of the summer months with peak demand for our gas in Israel and the wider region. we are focused as always on long-term value creation number one priority is the reliability of our production the bedrock of our business is the cash flow coming out of israel egypt italy and we are totally focused on continuing to sell gas to the domestic market in israel we have signed another four billion dollars worth of gas contracts to the local market in israel bringing our total value of contracted revenue to 20 billion dollars over the next period and i think this is a unique position to be in for any independent and probably not just independent a very predictable business a very predictable cash flow from very high credit quality buyers in israel that we have an excellent relationship with We are continuing also the efforts to export gas from Catalan. Our project, which is continuing to be on budget and on time, has no export restrictions and from 27 onwards we're able, if we choose so, to export this gas to the regional markets. we see very strong demand egypt obviously is importing large quantities of lng to meet its gas demand these days so there's a very strong regional demand for our gas which we want to take advantage of we are introducing today and we will talk a little bit more about organic growth opportunities because energy and is not just about the existing business the bedrock as I mentioned earlier over cash flow coming out of Israel and Egypt we have three very exciting projects that we're working on in the portfolio one in Greece one in Egypt one in Israel that we will be maturing looking for partners in the near future to be able to take them to a drilling stage and prove additional potential in our portfolio I'll talk about that a bit later very excited about the developments of our carbon storage project we received the first tranche of grant funding from the RRF supported by the European Union both Greece government of Greece and the European Union remain committed to to assist us in the decarbonization of heavy industries in Greece and the project has now kick-started with initial drilling and well testing targeted in 2026 with a project that will be talking more about it over the coming period and calls that we will have together that is taking center stage in our transition of the prinos field from the mature oil production or the depleted oil production into the ccs project that we have been talking about we are continuously reviewing all strategic options to maximize shareholder value and to grow our business and you all know me I'm very direct and we will talk more about what we plan to do with potential M&A but I want to give a very clear message that we will be extremely disciplined because we want to maintain the three pillars that we have promised to our shareholders a dividend policy which is stable a deleveraging and a strong balance sheet and growth opportunities organic and inorganic The result of all this is very strong results of $800 million of revenue for the period, half a billion dollars of EBITDAX, $110 million of profits. Our leverage sits at 2.7 times and we are on track to the promise we made with our dividend policy. uh with the dividend we are declaring today uh paid at cumulative or will have paid a cumulative of 700 million dollars of dividends uh from the great business that we're running moving uh to the next slide and getting a bit deeper into our operations um next slide please ben I'm starting with our commitment to safety great results from our safety team and our operating team with very low numbers on all safety records and a continuously reducing carbon emission intensity I know that this is not the top priority of everyone we used to be talking only about emission intensity in the past we continue to focus on this although the focus of the world with the drill baby drill policy of the u.s has shifted we remain committed to a safe and responsible operating model moving on to production we are we did achieve 138,000 barrels of oil equivalent production the first half it is down from the previous year affected mainly by the planned shutdown that we had in the second for the second oil train which is on the FPSO and getting ready to be put on stream in the coming month and of course the unplanned shutdown following the suspension order by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure that we had in June due to the geopolitical tensions having said that as I mentioned earlier Group August standalone production stood at 178,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and we do see continuing continuing strong demand a lot of what will happen for the remainder of the year and the outlook that we see and we revise our guidance to 145 to 155 000 barrels a day will depend on weather conditions in israel in the last quarter september is strong we will see what happens over the next month depending on on weather next please Israel I mentioned earlier a new contract new contract signed the first half four billion dollars we are focusing on the export option Nitzana the pipeline that will export additional gas from Israel to Egypt is progressing chevron is the operator they have the lead in the development timetable we are booking capacity in the pipeline to be able to export our gas coming from catalan and the slide shows the total revenue that we have contracted 15 billion over the next decade 20 billion to 2037 giving us the confidence that we have a very strong cash flow, a very long reserve life, average reserve life of our assets is about 19 years. So very healthy business that has a very long term plan to grow based on this fantastic business that we build in Israel. Next one, please. Catalan, our major project, remains on budget in line with the FID that we made, a $1.2 billion investment. The rig that we have secured is coming in 2026. We have two firm wells, Athena and Zeus, and two optional wells at the moment. Our intention is to exercise the first option for Israel and keep the second option for one of our very exciting Exploration prospects that we have in the portfolio in the region that I will talk about a bit later Next slide please On the rest of the portfolio very briefly in Egypt we have seen very strong performance from our location be well and we are actively talking to the government obviously to continuously manage the outstanding receivables position there is a tough situation in egypt we all know it we are committed to egypt we have been there for over 15 years and in tough times we stick with our partners and obviously try to maximize value our top priority at the moment is to merge the three concessions nanny and here to create incremental value for all our shareholders which is something which is progressing very well I've met with the Egyptian authorities very recently and there is progress that we will be able to report over the coming months Italy, the Vega West work program has been amended and submitted to the government. It contains at least 10 million barrels of additional volumes that we can produce through the existing infrastructure. and we're waiting for permits from the italian government to be able to drill the extended reach wells and increase production from the vega assets rospo following the unfortunate event that we had with the fire is planned to restart production in early q4 2025 i expect that to be in the beginning of october so that will be behind us and italy production will be back strong again all the costs have been covered by the insurance contracts that we have so we've seen deferred production obviously with no major impact on our business croatia exciting project not a huge one but one that we took fid on on the arena development with first gas expected in the first half of 27 european gas production is our business plan our focus as i said not a game changer but a very profitable one that adds a lot of value to our to our business UK decommissioning project is going extremely well with energy and as operator we have been able to reduce costs remain on time and on budget and we are looking to complete all the work of decommissioning tours and windlock over the coming months and we are actually seeing a much better performance of the uk portfolio than what we originally anticipated so total business that in the first half produced 44 000 barrels of oil equivalent today that we are focusing on to see how we can squeeze more barrels and molecules of gas out of all our assets to maximize value and push the commissioning to the right which is a key target of the team Next slide, please. I talked earlier about the prospectivity that we have in the portfolio. Organic growth that can come from four projects. First one in Israel, a project called Tzadyam. Tzadyam in Hebrew is the sea turtle, a continuation of the sea creatures of karish, shark, canine, crocodile. A very exciting block with a deep prospect that we have mapped in the Mesozoic. It's a risky prospect but one that could be a game changer for the whole East Mediterranean. We are looking to mature this. We will be looking for partners to drill this well and potentially use one of the options that we have on the drilling rig to drill that well in 26 or 27. Block 2 in Greece. The only block in the country that has real prospectivity for well in the coming period. Yesterday Chevron submitted a bid for block south of Crete in Greece. Greece is becoming a focus for the international oil and gas companies. We are there. We have a block with very significant prospectivity. We have some numbers that we report here. we are targeting over 70 cf of gas and potentially also oil if we are successful with the drilling operation this is going to be a focus for us over the coming months to mature it and potentially use again as i said earlier the option we have on the drilling rig to drill a well in block 2 in the coming 18 months Aboukir deep very exciting prospect of close to 2 TCF that we see and we map under the platforms of Aboukir an easy project to develop but one that needs obviously exploration risk and those three prospects are all prospects with very material impact on our business they are exploration prospects they carry risk we understand that very well but i wanted today to highlight the organic growth opportunities we have in the portfolio that gives us the base for the missing piece in the business plan that is growth from our existing assets over and above our efforts to look at inorganic opportunities that i will talk about later Last but not least, I want to move to the Prenos carbon storage project. As I said earlier, kickstarted the project with the first tranche of 20 million euro that came in from the resilience and recovery facility of Greece that is supporting a project. that can reach three million tons of storage capacity that will substantially help greece to decarbonize its heavy industries we are working very closely with the government and the emitters the cement factories and the refineries that will be using the prinos facility as a storage site for the co2 some very important milestones we have now certified storage volumes the equivalent of a cpr but for co2 storage from nsai that has certified 66 million tons of storage capacity the demand far exceeds the capacity of the field all the emitters in greece are very committed to decarbonize and we have very active discussions with the government about how we will be filling the storage capacity in terms of funding and i'm sure the question will come later how will you fund a project that could reach a billion we are committed and we are remain committed not to put stress on our balance sheet so for the time being the 270 million euro of grants that have been received or approved by the connecting europe facility and the rrf will be used to fund the first phase of the project until we reach the point where we are able to take fid and at that point we will have partners and funding in more detail so for now what i want everybody to remember is that this is a great project that transitions our oil mature oil asset into a ccs project without burning on our balance sheet With that, I would like to pass the floor to Panos to go through the financial review. Thank you.

Thank you, Matthias. Good morning from me as well. As you have seen from our financial results, the production disruptions in our Israeli operations in the first half of the year, specifically the unplanned two-week suspension ordered by the ministry and the planned shutdown for the second oil drain, did have an impact on our sales volumes and revenues. Having said that, however, our group gas production was largely flat compared to last year, as the increased gas sales in Italy offset the lower production in Israel, and combined with the strong PSV prices, our group gas revenues did record 540 million, an increase of 7% compared to last year. However, that was clearly not the case in the liquids part of the business, where we recorded both a drop in volumes produced due to the production disruption in Caris and Roscoe Mare, and lower realized prices compared to the same period last year. As a result, our total group revenue for the first half of the year was just over 800 million, 7% lower than the same period last year. Moving to slide 14 and other key performance indicators, you can see that all controllable cost and expenditure areas of our business were kept well under control despite the operational challenges we had, the ongoing development of Catlan and the new asset, the Cassiopeia gas field that has been added to our OPEX lines. More specifically, our production cost and G&A was flat at circa 290 million I want to mention here that the slight G&A increase that has been flagged for the first six months versus last year was due to the legal costs associated with the Carlisle deal and we expect the full year ultimately to be flat compared to last year and as we are guiding at a number of 30 to 40 million. Our capital expenditure was around 300 million, 100 million less than the same period last year With all our projects however, especially Catalan, being on time and on budget year to date. And finally our T-Com expenditure at 30 million, increased compared to last year, but much lower than the number initially budgeted for 2025. Moving to slide 15. As announced before, we will be drawing on our bank Lumi-led loan to prepay the outstanding 2026 bonds, with redemption date now confirmed to be 21st of September. Our group cost of debt, even at the current high interest rate environment, is just below 7%, and our weighted average maturity at 6 years, which makes our debt profile very competitive Our balance is resilient and most importantly allows for flexibility and optionality as we grow our business and deliver returns to our shareholders. Despite the challenging first half of the year, we have kept our net debt levels at 3 billion, only slightly higher than the 2 billion 950 recorded in June 2024, while maintaining all our projects on track and our dividend policy intact. As we have said before, deleveraging both in absolute and ratio terms is one of our key targets, but we should not ignore the fact that a 3 billion of net debt has a long 6 year maturity profile to be serviced by a business with 20 year reserve life and over 20 billion of contracted revenue only from the Israeli gas sales. Moving to final slide from me, slide 16 and our revised guidance for the full year 2025. As Matheos mentioned we adjust our production guidance to 145 to 155 thousand barrels per day to reflect the first half performance and the planned commissioning of the second oil train towards the fourth quarter of the year. Net debt slightly higher by 100 million although I am cautiously optimistic we will keep this at below the 3 billion level as we recorded in June 2025. Cost of production reduced by 40 million to below 600 million as we adjust royalties linked to production and of course we continue keeping all OPEX and expenditure well under control. gna capex and exploration unchanged to previous guidance arabics down by at least 20 million if not more driven by further deferrals of platform removal activities but most importantly true realized savings on articom activities in the uk versus initial budgets matthew back to you

Thank you, Pano. Moving to the next slide, please. Last point from my side, we did talk about our M&A activity and the wider geographic focus in the Mediterranean and wider EMEA region. i want to make a very clear statement here that we are looking at every opportunity both in the med and west africa but we are extremely disciplined it has to have deep value for our shareholders and it has to be accretive to our dividend policy and our plan to have a very strong balance sheet so we are in no rush we are very comfortable with our existing business and the growth opportunities we have both organically and the cash flow that we have to produce in the coming years there are a lot of opportunities that I see around the region especially projects that majors do not want to develop because they are too small or below the radar screen but there is no other independent out there that can claim the operating track record in the deep waters that we have That gives us the confidence to sit in front of governments and discuss projects that we can take over and operate safely and with the results that we have shown that we can deliver in the MED. So we want to repeat the MED success in West Africa, but only with projects that have the characteristics I mentioned. we are reviewing all strategic options of our existing portfolio we did go through the carlisle story which was painful but ultimately i think it's going to be more painful for them than it will be for us as we have the assets and we continue to produce and get value out of them and that is an effort the effort of maximizing value through reviewing all strategic options will continue with discussions that we have about all our assets closing and moving to the last slide what we're focused on for the next period we're looking to sign more gas contracts in line with our strategic focus on long-term value creation and stable cash flows both in israel and outside of israel we're looking to export opportunities mostly to fill the shoulder months and keep our boat full that is proving to be a fantastic machine that keeps producing at maximum rates that will be further increased by the start of the m10 project the second oil train that will allow us to increase oil production as well we're looking to optimize all our asset values outside of israel particularly in egypt where the concession merger will create immediate value and npv uplift to our business through the improved terms that we're negotiating with the egyptian government we are continuing our quarterly dividend to our shareholders always keeping in mind that we need to have a strong balance sheet and we need to do leverage and finally we are looking to mature all the options in the existing portfolio which are very rich as i demonstrated earlier but also a very disciplined m a approach to any new opportunity outside of our existing portfolio thank you for your attention today and happy to take any questions

We will shortly begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question on the conference line, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one to ask a question on the conference line. Participants can also submit questions through the webcast page using the ask a question button. We'll pause for a moment to assemble the queue. We'll take our first question from the line of Werner Riding from Peel Hunt. Your line is open.

thank you morning everyone um yeah first of all good to hear about the portfolios upside through um exploration that you highlighted and um and the focus on m&a but my question this morning relates to financing um the panos perhaps i was just looking at your capital structure and the the bond tenors and the principal repayment schedule there's no pressure um but with net debt increasing to three billion wondering if you could set out when you think that will start to come down sustainably and when you see net debt peaking.

Thank you. I don't want to give guidance because this is driven by quite a few things and you can understand the fact that the 3 billion number has not reduced salaries Given the amount of curveballs we have been served the last 18 months or so in our main operations, that resulted in quite a few deferrals of key projects. Having said that, as Mathios said, of course, the business and the team has proven extremely resilient. Now, I'll be very specific what our target is. Our target is for that 3 billion to be the peak which we expect to be reached towards the end of this year. Our target is to get well into the 2 billion, 2.5 going down to the 2 billion in the next 18 months or so. are planned for the time being and then i don't want to be committing to anything but our initial plan is any refinancing of the corporate bond to be at lower amounts of the 450 that we currently hold and we expect the 2028 as well refinancing of the israeli bonds either to be fully repaid or if refinanced it will be at lower numbers Of course, as we said, we do have a lot of organic growth opportunities. We are screening the market for inorganic opportunities as well, and those statements may change. But it is, for the Airborne to spread it out, we don't ignore the net debt levels. As we have said before, our comfort zone is at around two times, maybe a little bit lower, one and a half to two times leverage, and this is a sustainable end. The target metrics we are aiming for. Having said that, again I want to draw your attention to the metrics of our debt which are extremely competitive. I cannot think of a peer that has 6 year average life and cost of debt which is less than 7% and especially you see it with slide 7 that Matios went through where we have 15 billion to go to 2036 and another 5 billion to go post 2036 with more contracts being signed and with any export volumes that we're trying to get not included there and only from the gas sales from israel you can see that we have plenty of flexibility so our target is to give full ammunition to the team to continue growing the business to keep the dividend policy intact and at the same time get to our target leverage ratio that as I said is around a two times EBITDAX.

Let me add something to what Panos just said here. One very important point that I mentioned and probably wasn't clear. I said very clearly we will be looking for partners. these are wells that we would probably not drill 100% and as you've seen from our strategy so far we have 100% of the Israeli asset 100% of the Greek asset 100% of the Egyptian asset 100% of all our Italian assets the ones that we even took over from ENI this is not a common strategy in this industry so exploration wells that carry risk we would drill with partners and it's an obvious question how will you fund these wells and at the same time reduce leverage and maintain your dividend policy very clearly this is not a plan to go drill very risky deep frontier wells without the confidence and support of other partners that will be obviously sharing the cost and potentially also promote because we have matured these assets to the level they are today. So it's not just the strength that Pan has very correctly outlined. It's also a different approach to partnering going forward for these kind of more risky projects that we have in the portfolio.

That's really clear. Thanks for the detail on that.

your next question comes from the line of david round from stifle the line is open thanks guys uh thanks for the presentation um i was interested in the 178 000 barrel a day number i mean you guys must have been pretty happy with that but were you surprised by the level of summer demand i mean if i'm if i look back at last year it looks like it was up on last year and i suspect that's despite some of your buyers having a few issues post june so just sort of wondering sort of that level at which you reached and peaked at you know what was that a number that exceeded expectations and if it did does that change any of your thinking going forward it the the answer is very clear it is in line with expectations that in the summer months uh we are going to be full

The boats going to be full what has exceeded? Expectations is the performance of the FPSO that has been working extremely well non-stop and able to deliver at peak capacity and that is something that we intend obviously to continue and um and also increase with the addition of the m10 that will allow us to go above 23 24 000 barrels of oil a day so that's uh the the expectation the market in israel continues to grow the gas demand continues to grow despite the wars despite what is going on the economy remains very resilient and strong demand from egypt remains strong i'm sure everybody has read and seen the big export contract has been signed to get more gas to egypt from the leviathan expansion and uh... we also see more gas demand coming from the neighboring countries jordan and uh... ultimately when uh... you know the dust settles from other geopolitical tensions there are countries that need gas for the reconstruction we have next to us lebanon we have syria there are export opportunities for the whole region and that is something that we need to take advantage of we are not surprised that the israeli market is strong we expected that and we have everything contracted but we're obviously very pleased that we reached levels of 180 000 equivalent today that could be higher uh once the m10 is uh on stream

okay understood and just since june what's the situation like in israel is everything back to normal now

everything was back to normal throughout this period and I go to Israel every month and everything remains the same life goes on obviously with the challenges that the Israeli people have to go through and it's not easy to live with sirens going off and attacks from drones and missiles but there is a very resilient population and life is normal. I've said it many times and anybody that wants is invited to come and visit both the country and the FPSO to see how we operate and how life keeps going on all our employees that are offshore both Israelis and international employees continue to work without any interruption and everybody is very happy and comfortable to go work on the FPSO

right thanks and i like that we have music on the floor on the conference call these days it's a new style as a reminder if you wish to ask a question please restart followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced

you can also submit questions by clicking the ask a question button on the webcast page your next question comes from the line of matt smith your line is open hi there good morning matthews good morning panos um a couple of questions from me please and the first was with reference to your comments about reviewing strategic options within the portfolio i guess first of all i presume that's you know x israel and second of all i just wondered whether you'd be able to comment upon you know is that more likely to be a sort of straightforward disposal that you're looking at sort of as you did with the carlisle deal or is there you know a likelihood of some more creative options with jv's asset combinations that sort of thing that i just just sort of wondered what sort of solutions and opportunities that you see out there please so that'd be the first and then the second one was sort of stepping back to the dividend um obviously you've sort of reiterated the commitment once again to the quarterly dividend and the stability of that is clearly a feature of the company um you know i know circumstances that have changed a great deal in the recent past but i suppose once upon a time you know energy and had the desire to to grow the current dividend um as well so i just wanted to ask stepping back uh as we look over the medium term you know what would it take um for you to see within the business to be comfortable um actually resuming a growth trajectory uh to the current dividend please i'll take the first question matt and let panos comment on the dividend the answer is we would look at both

jv's are very popular these days and they have proven to be successful business models for a number of companies and of course we will evaluate every option that we have in our hands given our very strong East Mediterranean position that very few people can claim they have because we understand in this part of the world both what is going on below the surface as we've proven from the development of the assets but also how to navigate above surface issues and given our understanding of all the countries Greece Italy Egypt Israel Cyprus I think we're in a very strong position and this is something that is publicly stated by all the political leaders of the region that energy and represents the East Mediterranean champion because we are present in all the countries and as you've seen from our portfolio we do have presence investments and projects in pretty much all the East Mediterranean countries that are of interest to us so that is answer to your first question about JV's sales of the portfolio of the assets I remind everyone we didn't go looking for Carlisle Carlisle came knocking on our door and made a proposal to buy the portfolio we're open to hear ideas and open to maximize value to our shareholders across the board and that is our duty and that is how we deal with the business having said that i remind everyone and i know that governments and different countries are listening to what we say we remain totally committed to the countries that we operate and that is a very strong statement that I made earlier about Egypt despite the growing receivables number I mentioned today also the deep horizon prospectivity that we see there's another block that we have called Eben in partnership with ENA that we shot seismic and we're getting ready to drill onshore wells that has prospectivity because what happens if you are not committed to the countries and governments start to see that you are thinking of selling or exiting then the situation gets much worse in terms of payments and the priority that one has in the country so we remain totally committed to countries but at the same time we are open to whatever structure can add value to our shareholders and what Panos very clearly outlined as our target to continue the stable dividend to deleverage and grow. Pano comment on the dividends.

I think I'll take a step back here. We set the current dividend policy in the summer of 2022 before the commissioning of the FPSO we were if not the first one of one of the very few in our sector to be setting an absolute level with no ifs and buts no percentages we said this is the number that we will be paying to our shareholders going forward and we have kept that promise despite the delays we had in commissioning if you remember back then the windfall taxes in italy and of course one of the most important and challenging geopolitical events in our region since decades i would say and still we paid that 50 million so for us to be resetting that it will need to be a credible and reliable number that we can keep irrespective of uncontrollable or even controllable incidents that may happen to this volatile sector we're working on So we have said however what will take for us to reset the dividend and as I've said before I would be looking as a first indicator to have the leverage dropping to two times or below leverage. That is a key metric for us before we start discussing and assessing an increase in the dividend stream. The second one is of course more controllable to us but we will need to see Catalan having finished which is our biggest capital intensive project at the moment. And as I explained before, we do expect those events to be completed in the next 15-18 months as I replied to Werner. We see end of 26, beginning of 27. All those things coming together very nicely. I don't want to guide to any change in dividend policy or anything like that for the avoidance of any doubt. I'm just laying out the specific metrics that we are monitoring. and of course the principle under which we will be resetting the dividend. The dividend will be reset not in an opportunistic manner but at a level that we can sustain for the long run and not ambush or surprise our shareholders that rely on that dividend stream.

there are no further questions at this moment i want to hand back over to energy team for any closing remarks thank you everyone for participating um just a quick recap our business remains strong we are very pleased with the performance of the assets that we have so far in the portfolio and looking to continue the growth trajectory remind everyone we listed at four pounds we're trading at about nine now everybody that has invested in energy and has seen and benefits from the growth on top of the seven hundred million dollars of dividends that we paid so far we are totally committed to first of all defending the balance sheet and the business we don't want to take the same trajectory as many other E&P companies have taken where overstretched balance sheets and aggressive exploration or growth strategies have led them to become penny stocks that's not us we're focused on long-term value creation but we are also looking to continue the growth that we have proven that we can deliver thank you all and look forward to seeing and speaking to you very soon thank you