Jadestone Energy plc

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning or good afternoon, wherever you are. And welcome to JSON Energy's first half 2023 results conference call. I'm Paul Blakely, CEO, and I'm joined on the call today by our CFO, Bertie Alpdeister, and by Phil Corbett, Investor Relations Manager. In this call, we'll take you through a presentation which was recently uploaded to the Investor Relations section of our website. or you can view it via the link on the webcast. And after that, let's open the call for some Q&A discussion. So turning first to the usual slide two, which outlines our standard disclaimers, and in particular, the cautionary remarks regarding forward-looking statements and non-IFRS measures that are used in the presentation. And then on to slide three. And I have to say it's good to open this webcast with the news that Montara production was restarted earlier this month and has averaged around 6,250 barrels a day during the period. This follows the identification of the defect between tanks and the small enhancement to our inspection processes, which I'll touch on later, will take care of this. A clear priority now is to safely maximize uptime of the asset while progressively restoring storage tank capacity. Significant progress continues to be made at Akitara year to date, with the project now over 61% complete and still on track for commercial gas sales in the first half of next year. And at the East Belemut drilling campaign offshore Malaysia, The first well has come in ahead of expectations and is now on stream and adding barrels into a $90 plus environment, which is great for us. This follows a successful drilling campaign at Simferholm earlier in the quarter where production continues at maximum quantity. I also want to mention our recent safety performance and take a moment to certainly recognize that during this period, 2023, we have had some excellent outcomes. There is a lot of challenging activity within tanks at Montara with drilling programs and the major project at Akatara with up to 1,100 personnel on site. And all of this with no lost time incidents and more than 2.5 million man hours worked on the project so far. Safety is a core value at Jade Stone, but something we do not take for granted. So it's great to see this. and my congratulations go to everyone working at our sites. During the latter part of last year and into this first half of this year, we've continued to look to grow and diversify the business with new acquisitions, having closed CWLH late last year but completed the funding of its decommissioning obligations this year, and then adding Sinful Home in February. This has been great addition to the portfolio, enhancing our borrowing base and adding low emissions gas production. Output from the field has been consistently above the contract quantity and recently enhanced with a successful infill drilling campaign to be supported by additional boosted compression, which we'll complete in 2024. We strengthened the balance sheet in May by signing the RBL. and further reinforced it with proceeds from the June placing as we move into a period of maximum investment until Acatara comes on stream. Once that happens, we can expect a rapid deleveraging through the second half of 2024 with the ultimate aim of returning to a net cash position in 2025, if not sooner. But for more details on this and an update on our financial performance year-to-date, I think best to hand over to Bert Jans. Thanks, Bert Jans.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning or afternoon to all of you. Over to slide four, please. As referenced in the July trading update, the loss in the first half of the year was driven by lower revenues due to the shutdown and subsequent ramp-up period of Montara, which impacted sold volumes, combined with lower price realizations for the period. Montaro lifted one cargo in the first half with the second lifting of approximately 300,000 barrels of oil occurring early in July this year. Of the $139 million decrease in revenues when comparing to H1 2022, lower lifted volumes explained $90 million and lower price realizations around $48 million. We have included details on price realizations as well as our hedging program in support of our RBL in the appendix of this presentation. The decrease in revenues primarily explained the negative operating cash flow before tax and working capital movements of $24 million for H1 2023. Based on our projected lifting schedule and prevailing oil prices, we expect to deliver a significantly better financial performance in the second half of this year. At the end of June, the company carried a net cash balance of $8 million. I will go into a bit more detail on cash flow and sources and uses shortly. Slide five. With respect to operating costs, we show the waterfall chart from reported gross operating costs to adjusted production costs. We're taking reported adjustments consistent with our financial statements, while noting that we carried through a relatively small change in methodology for pipeline tariffs in Penmore, which were not excluded in H1 2022, but subsequently were in full year 2022 and in H1 2023. We make these adjustments to provide a view on the field level cost of a production, which we believe is more useful for our stakeholders and reported cost. I won't go through each adjustment now as they are detailed in our financial statements, but we're of course happy to take any questions offline. Adjusted reported operating costs for H1 2023 totaled $82 million. On the right-hand side of the chart, we compare adjusted cost of this period to the reported adjusted cost of H1 2022, and we note that CWLH was added in the second half of 2022 and as such only contributed cost in H1 2023. The conclusion from the analysis is that on a life-like basis, adjusted costs show a small increase for H1 2023 compared to the same period last year. In light of the inflationary environment the oil and gas industry currently operates in, Evidenced, for example, by the significant increase in tanker rates, this demonstrates the focus Jaystone has on keeping costs under control. On slide six, we present our usual cash flow waterfall chart. There are a few moving parts here I wanted to highlight. First, operating cash flow after tax and before working capital was a negative $29 million, which shows the earlier mentioned impact of lower revenues. Working capital movements represented a negative $30 million, mostly as a result of movements in inventory and underlift positions. After closing on the 22nd of May, the RBL was drawn for $111 million in the period, which funded Jade Stone's ongoing investment program, and which was used to redeem the $50 million bridge facility from earlier in the first half. Cash expenses associated with financing were around $15 million, of which $7 million related to leasing, $5.5 million for fees mostly related to the RBL, and around $2 million for the share buyback very early in the year. Interest received almost offset interest paid for the period. The June placing generated around $51 million of additional net cash. Investment of $92 million in respect of CapEx, Simform, and CWLA's ABEX funding explained the removing movements to arrive at the period-end cash balance of $119 million, which resulted in the $8 million period-end net cash. On slide 7, we simplified the previous waterfall chart to highlight sources and uses of cash in the period. This chart shows that the RBL funded Jade Stone's growth program in the first half, with CapEx primarily consisting of expenditure on the Acatara project, the acquisition of Sim4Home, and the payment related to the CWLH acquisition. The RBL also supported a portion of the working capital movement during the period. And as mentioned previously, SymfoHorm added more borrowing capacity in the RBL than the company paid in cash consideration, demonstrating that our RBL supports the company's growth strategy. Cash balances were used to fund some working capital, negative operating cash flow for the period, and the earlier mentioned financing expenditure. The chart on slide 8 illustrates that we had total available liquidity of around $230 million at the end of June, consisting of $110 million in unrestricted cash balances, $89 million of available debt capacity in the RBL, and the $32 million working capital facility that we closed in June 2023, which remains unused to date. The RBL capacity is an important consideration here, September redetermination is well underway and the RBL Technical Bank has recommended a debt capacity of around $190 million for the six-month period starting 1st of October. This capacity compares to around $170 million for the same period in the current banking model. In other words, around $20 million more capacity than was projected previously. We do note that the model and associated debt capacity are pending bank approvals. The RBL financial covenant requiring our net debt be less than three and a half times EBITDAX at 30 June was met due to our net cash position. And on current estimates, this covenant will also be met at the next testing date of 31st of December 2023. In line with previous disclosures, debt capacity is projected to significantly decrease following the March 2024 redetermination based on the current banking model. We've mentioned previously that there are several options we are exploring, including the CapEx add-back mechanism, adjusting STAG's negative contribution in the banking model, raising the ACATARA development cap, and or execute additional opportunistic hedging. Most of these options require bank approval, and as such, we're working with the RBL banks on potential solutions. The debt capacity in the second quarter and third quarter of 2024 is a top priority, and we will come back with more news if and when we can. On slide 9, we have updated our net debt projections from June for the equity raise proceeds, current oil prices, actual hedged volumes, and the recent Montara shutdown. All other parameters have been kept constant as we've not been through another formal budgeting cycle. Two important notes need to be made here. First, the year-end net debt projections will change, for example, with the 2024 work program and budget, a process which has just started. The approved 2024 and 2025 work programs could result in significantly different work scope, phasing thereof, and associated budgets. Second, Jadestone's year-end net debt positions can be significantly impacted by the phasing of liftings and working capital movements. In other words, we are confident in the direction of travel, but remember, projections can and do change. These projections also include around $48 million cash payments to Jadestone, relating to a prior joint venture's partner's share of future abandonment activities. The first installment was received in September 2023 with the remaining balance expected to be received in early 2024. As of 30 June 2023, all transactions are recorded on the balance sheet and more detail can be found in the financial statements. The conclusion of this chart is consistent with the version from June 2023 in that we expect to be in a net cash position around the first half of 2025 and possibly sooner. This highlights the strong cash generation forecast in the near term, particularly from Acatara, which is recovering historical costs immediately following first gas. Over to Paul for the operational update.

That's super. Thank you, Bert. Yeah, very clear, very helpful. And so now let's move on to slide 10. and we'll start with an update on Montara. Well disappointing to have to shut in Montara production again at the end of July. The communication point between tanks 4S and 5C was quickly identified and the simple repair is now well advanced. We have of course been asked by a number of investors and indeed we've asked ourselves, why did this small defect occur? so shortly after inspecting both tanks and returning them to service and so we conducted a detailed investigation and found that our general processes our repair methods and operating practices are all good but we found one small gap in the inspection methodology which of course we've changed the best way to explain this is to point out that firstly our inspection regime is significantly more rigorous than industry standard, i.e. we follow detailed visual inspections with typically 10 times more ultrasonic thickness checks on hull and bulkheads within the tanks than is required. This is our standard approach. But secondly, we also do much more than this if we find conditions that warrant it. And this really provides us with a great baseline condition survey of the hull and bulkheads, noting that most areas which require any form of repair are usually as a result of defects that were created over 15 years ago during shipyard conversion, or even earlier as a result of original service as a trading tanker. However, there are a series of horizontal braces within the ballast tank with small welded grooves along their junction with the bulkhead. And any thin spots in those grooves may have been masked by old paint or indeed by the brace itself. And what we've now found is that any defects in these locations can only be resolved by using a different and much finer ultrasonic thickness probe. And so this process has now become our new standard and was implemented already in tank 4P before it was returned to service, identifying two more minor anomalies which were subsequently repaired. And so I have to say that while this additional process is small, it does have far-reaching consequences for our confidence in what we're doing at Montara. And I really hope that this is the breakthrough to get us back on track. We understand the importance of stakeholder confidence in our tank inspection and repair program on the Montara venture. And we now believe we can move forwards towards a higher performing asset with increasing cash flows and returns. Montara fields production has averaged 6,250 barrels a day since restart, although currently it's higher than this with a benefit of return of the second separator on the FBSO. as well as having all Montara wells in production. Oil is currently being produced into tank 6C, but following the repair that I talked about earlier, we anticipate 5C will be back online around the end of the month, followed by additional ballast capacity shortly thereafter. We're then back on track to continue work in the FPSO's other tanks as we look to progressively increase crude oil storage before releasing the small shuttle tanker, which currently provides the additional capacity needed to ensure safe and reliable and continuous production operations. And so moving to slide 11, let's now move on to an update on ACATARA, where we're now over 61% complete on the project scope. and expect this to rise to 65% by the end of this month. The images on this slide give a great sense of progress, and I also invite you to download the monthly progress video from our website to really appreciate the high levels of current activity. Importantly, many of the long lead items are now arriving on site, and we have increasing control of all equipment as it gets delivered to the region for integration and installation. With over 1,100 workers on site and a high proportion of subcontractors, the project is being well managed both for productivity and safety, which I mentioned earlier. This is extremely good news so far, and we expect to be able to start commissioning the facilities in the first quarter of next year which will support commercial gas sales delivery to commence in the second quarter of 2024, as we've always said. Slide 12 now, it highlights the benefit of reuse of the existing well stock from the previous short-lived oil production project at Acatara. Between June and July, we well tested the Acatara 1 well, which is an existing well which will be reused as a gas producer. The intent was to confirm our view of the subsurface parameters, including pressures, volumes, and gas composition. The well was flowed at various choke sizes at up to 8.5 million cubic feet per day, confirming the gas quality and the volumes required under the gas sales agreement. We also confirm the potential upside beyond the committed volumes and which may be monetized in the future through additional gas sales contracts. We'll continue to firm up the timing and extent of these volumes and provide an update to you when appropriate. Now, turning to slide 13, we're also making good progress on the East Element drilling campaign in Malaysia. The first well commenced drilling in late August and reached target depth earlier this month. We encountered just over 10 meters of reservoir at the heel of the well, which was more than prognosed, and drilled an 1,100 meter horizontal section along the top of the reservoir, even encountering areas of original oil water contact, which really gives encouragement for more upside. The well has now been tied into the production facilities and flowed at over 2,800 barrels per day on full choke, well ahead of expectations. This is a great start to the program. And the rig is now skidded to the second well location, currently kicking off into the reservoir. We originally expected to deliver 2,000 to 2,500 barrels a day gross production from this program. And I would honestly imagine the first well will settle down at closer to 1,000 barrels a day on a more sustained basis. So this is a really encouraging start for our first well drilled in our Malaysia assets. It's also worth noting the drilling program at the non-op central home asset concluded in July, a month ahead of schedule, with well pH 24 delivering significant incremental production, which helps underpin contractual volumes for the next year or two. The well came on stream at 26 million cubic feet a day, over 40% ahead of expectation, and may allow next year's drilling campaign to be deferred. The field supply contract is for 84 million cubic feet a day gross, with actual sales volumes 15% ahead of this, and likely to be maintained into the future in a region which is short of gas. So good news here also. And now moving to guidance on slide 14, where I can confirm that overall guidance measures all remain within the original ranges, though we have signaled a move to the lower part of the production range, primarily, of course, due to the recent Montara unplanned outage. Operating costs, as discussed by Birkjaf earlier, have been well managed within range, notwithstanding the current inflationary environment. And capital has been brought to the lower end of guidance as we've deferred small amounts of long lead equipment orders for future projects. Well, activity at ACATARA may also be re-phased with some in early 2024. And progressively, we've also removed contingency as project activity has unfolded during the year. Overall, this is a good outcome. and credit to the many people in the organization working hard to deliver on our promises. And now finally to slide 15, where I'll conclude with some thoughts on where the business stands today. We do believe that progress on fixing a small inspection gap on Montara is a big step forwards in managing the tank program there. This will give increased confidence in asset performance, and it is the absolute priority within the organization today. We hope that over time, this will translate to higher uptime performance at Montara, growing returns, and help to restore investor confidence. Equally, good progress at Akitara is providing an increasing probability of delivering first gas on schedule, and the added benefit of some incremental sales due to reserves upside is something we'll work hard to unlock too. We've already talked about drilling successes, but we're also planning a three-well workover campaign at Stag to commence at the end of this month, looking to restore almost 1,000 barrels a day of production. We haven't discussed Vietnam today, and while progress has been slow, following some high-level meetings within government. We believe we are close to finalizing a gas sales heads of agreement with PV Power. And we hope to be able to report on this in due course. All this activity should see an improved second half of the year. And with ACOTARA on stream next year, a more rapidly leveraging the balance sheet and return to net cash, as Bert Jaap described earlier. We will use this near-term significant growth in cash generation to continue to assess high-quality acquisition opportunities, those that can be afforded by cash flow and debt, with a focus on cash-flowing assets that will naturally expand in the RBL borrowing base. I hope that over time, the quality of a much larger business, the cash-generative capacity that it delivers, And the greater resilience of multiple producing assets within the portfolio will restore confidence sufficiently to see the stock re-rate to where it should be and provide an appropriate reward for the patience of our investor base. Thank you for listening. And with that, can I hand back to the operator for questions?