Jadestone Energy plc

Good morning or good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Jade Stone's Energy's half year 2024 results conference call. I'm Paul Blakely, Jade Stone's CEO, and I'm joined on the call from London today by CFO Birchap Dijkstra and by Phil Corbett, head of investor relations. In this call, we'll take you through a presentation recently uploaded to the investor relations section of our website. or you can view it by the link on the webcast. And after that, let's have a Q&A discussion. Turning to slide two, this outlines our standard disclaimers, and then we'll move quickly onto slide three, and we can get started. Overall, the first half of 2024 delivered solid performance with 37% production growth, compared with the first half of 2023. Price realizations for our oil sales were good in the half, and improved cost control, while volumes rose, helped to drive higher earnings and cash flow year on year. In particular, our portfolio diversification strategy continues to bear fruit, with additional barrels from the Malaysia infill drilling campaign, and the doubling of our CWLH interest in Australia, both contributing to the first half, as well as an improved performance from Montara and a full period of production from Sinfohorm. The primary focus of the business in 2024 has been completion of the Akutara development in Indonesia. Mechanical completion of the gas processing plant was achieved at the end of the second quarter on plan and progress on commissioning resulted in commercial gas sales commencing at the end of July. Since then, we've brought production up closer to full volumes, but have also been addressing a small number of typical commissioning issues so far preventing us from ramping up to full capacity on a sustainable basis. Nothing significant, but more on this later. And we remain absolutely confident of the significant contribution that ACATARA will make in the short term, underpinning a further step in the growth of the business. In addition to this, in the first half, we also strengthened our medium-term growth outlook, through the agreement of the heads of terms for Vietnam gas sales, a step closer to project FID, as well as with the signing of a new production sharing contract for the SFA cluster oilfield redevelopment opportunity in offshore Malaysia, which is supported by us also securing the surrounding acreage in PM 428. And now moving to slide four, where we've tried to set out how the significant recent progress of the business can best be described in the context of our overall business strategy. This demonstrates how the strategy remains just as relevant for us today as we continue to diversify the asset base, improve the quality of the portfolio and build greater resilience for the future. On the left side of the slide, are the key drivers which underpin our strategy through acquisitions, reinvestment, development and operational efficiencies. While on the right hand side are the specific activities delivered so far this year and the contribution they make to the business. Key takeaway from this slide is that we've already achieved a lot this year. by adding diversification, resilience and new opportunity to the portfolio, all of which supports growth, and improved cash flow generation and sustainable profits. And while we haven't seen much of this activity reflected in the share price yet, it represents solid progress towards a larger and more diversified and resilient upstream business in Asia-Pacific. And with that, I'm now going to hand over to Bert Jaap, to take you through the first half financial performance.

Thank you, Paul. And good morning or afternoon to you all. Moving to slide five. As Paul said in his introduction, the operational and financial performance of the business in the first half of this year improved significantly compared to the first half of last year. This is driven by year-on-year production growth and notably the recovery at Montara. Going through the KPIs in a bit more detail, production increased year-on-year by 37%. primarily driven by the additional shareholding acquired in CWLH2, a full period contribution from Montara and Simphor Horm, and the successful Malaysian drilling program late 2023. The production growth and the timing of liftings with the increased contribution from Montara and particularly a cargo of 650,000 barrels following completion of the CWLH2 acquisition resulted in oil liftings more than doubling year on year to 2.2 million barrels. Gross revenues before hedging more than doubled to $200 million, mostly driven by the increase in liftings and also a slightly higher oil price realization. The impact of the hedging program associated with the RBL in the first half of 2024 was $15 million, generating net revenues of $185 million. As of today, we're a bit over halfway through our original RBL hedging program. There was good cost control in the period, with underlying production costs broadly constant year on year. More on this later. The company generated $28 million of operating cash flow before tax and working capital in the first half, representing an increase of $52 million year on year. Operating cash flow was impacted by several factors in the first half, including a significant combined inventory and underlift position at the end of June 2024, which I will cover on a later slide. Net debt at the end of June, stood at $69 million compared to $3 million at the end of December 2023, reflecting the factors I've just discussed and the significant investments made in H1 2024, which I will highlight in a later slide also. Slide six then shows the income statement for the first half of 2024. Revenues increased primarily due to higher liftings during the period on its turn driven by increased production as explained earlier. Reported production costs were significantly higher than the first half of 2023. This increase is explained by a $46 million non-cash charge relating to the CWLH2 acquisition in February. At the time of closing, we acquired a significant underlift position of 530,000 barrels. This was good news as it led to a lifting straight after closing, which generated around $56 million of revenues in the first half also. However, the production costs associated with this acquired underlift is recognized at fair value based on the oil price when we lifted in March. The actual cash production cost at CWH is significantly less. We have added in the appendix of this presentation an updated cash flow chart, which shows the economic reality with underlying cash flow for CWH2. The DNA increased with a higher production year on year, G&A costs and other expenses were nearly constant year-on-year after stripping out a $5.5 million non-cash provision for ACATARA contingent payments, which was recognized in H1 2024, and which relates to oil price thresholds in the first year of production. Finance costs decreased year-on-year, mostly reflecting one-off expense items in the first half of 2023 results relating to the RBL and the June equity raise. Factoring tax, the loss for the period was $31 million. This loss is primarily explained by the non-cash CWH2 underlift valuation I covered a little earlier. To slide seven, we present our base cost chart, as we've done before, where we analyze production costs on a like-for-like basis. The two charts compare underlying operating costs for the first half of 2023 and 2024 by adjusting reported production costs for the effects of acquisitions inventory and lifting adjustments, non-recurring OPEX, and other elements of production costs that are not directly tied to the cost of production. As you can see, we back out the incremental OPEX from the CWLH2 acquisition since closing in February in 2024 to ensure a like-for-like comparison with H1 2023. Underlying them, or base production, in H1 2024 were $99 million, nearly constant compared to the $97 million in the first half of 2023. This shows that the business remains focused on cost control. Over to slide 8, where we set out our usual cash bridge for H1 2024. From left to right, we present our operating, investing, and financing cash flows. For simplicity, we have grouped H1 and recategorize certain elements in the cash flow statement here. Cash from operations, i.e. after tax on working capital, was $36 million. There are several factors which explain the cash flow generation in the first half, and I will highlight a few here. As shown in the separate table on this page, over H1 2024, the combined inventory and lifting position increased by circa 600,000 barrels with the associated cash revenue generation in the second half of the year. Based on current forecasts also, we expect the balance of annual liftings to be weighted towards the second half of 2024. Asset performance did have an impact on revenue generation in the first half. At Stagg and Montara, production was below expectations due to weather impacts, as reported before, and some field-specific issues. Montara lost the contribution of SKU11 for all the period, and H6 and SWIFT2 were offline for part of the period, and an increased number of wells at Stagg required intervention. Then we invested $92 million in CapEx and the CWH2 acquisition in the first half of 2024. Cash CapEx was $27 million, mostly related to the Actara project. And in line with previous announcements, $65 million was spent in the first half of the year on funding the ABEX Trust Fund associated with the CWH2 acquisition. The final CWH2 ABEX Trust Fund installment of $19 million will be paid by the end of this year. Other investment for a total of $9 million cash receipts includes cash received upon closing of CWH2 combined with dividend received from Sim4Home. Finally, finance charges reflecting RBL interest and lease expenses was $19 million in the first half, and we drew down the remaining $43 million of capacity in the RBL. This resulted in a total cash balance of $131 million at the end of the period, which corresponds with a $69 million net debt position. We're in our RBL and liquidity position on slide nine. At 30 June 2024, we had a liquidity position of $153 million, representing unrestricted cash and adding in $32 million working capital facility, which remains undrawn. The working capital facility expires at the end of the year, and we're currently exploring options to refinance this. Net debt at the end of June was $69 million, which increased to $95 million at the end of August. This is partly a reflection of lifting timings, where we expect to receive $57 million of lifting proceeds in September, primarily related to a CWLH cargo, which was lifted last month. The latest RBL financial covenant test covers the 12 months ending 30th of June 2024. The covenant's net debt over EBITDA ratio was passed with significant headroom again. Finally, the next scheduled redetermination of the RBL facility will have an effective date of 31st of October, which is one month later than the regular deadline. This is to allow for a change in technical bank. This one month extension was agreed by the banks and will not impact debt availability during that time. Which brings me to the end of the finance section of this presentation. And this is the point where I hand over to Paul again.

That's great, thanks a lot Bert, yeah. And so now let's move to slide 10, where I'll start with an update on the ACATARA development project. First thing I'd like to recognize is the safety performance at the project, with over 7.9 million man hours worked without a lost time injury to date. This is testament to the incredible safety focus and rigor that we've brought to the project, by the EPCI contractor and something that everyone who's been involved in the project can be proud of. The first half of 2024, we saw a peak in activity at ACOTARA with up to 2000 people working at site. Key milestones included completion of both the export pipeline and the work over campaign, plus the mechanical completion of the ACOTARA gas processing facility itself. achieved only two years after project sanction. Mechanical completion allowed the introduction of reservoir gas into the facility in June and condensate production commenced shortly after. Since then, we've been methodically working through final commissioning of the plant, addressing several minor issues along the way, as is typical on projects of this nature. To date, all are being satisfactorily resolved, and we're now working with the contractor to finalize this phase of activity prior to the facility performance test, which signals the point of formal handover from the contractor to us. And while production has been closed to contract volumes during this period, We've had a number of short shutdowns, including a current one, which have impacted volumes as the contractor and equipment vendors work to fix one more component of the plant prior to ramping up to the daily contract quantity of around 20 million cubic feet a day. Though DCQ is later than we'd hoped, these teething problems aren't unusual for a plant of this scale and complexity, And we remain confident that we'll be ramping up to full volumes in the near term, providing a meaningful boost to production and cash flows into the fourth quarter and beyond. Into slide 11 and following requests for this information, we wanted to try and give a sense of the scale of the near term cash generation we expect to see from ACOTARA based on the structure of the production sharing contract. Number of key inputs have been highlighted on this slide, including some pricing data and operating costs, which run at less than $5 a BOE at DCQ. But we also include the cost pools, including inherited costs, pre-project and project costs. It's worth remembering that over 120 million of inherited costs were acquired with the asset for the purchase price of just $12 million. And this, together with a similar amount of capital project costs and workovers, et cetera, on top drives strong free cash flow and early payback during the period when we are at maximum cost recovery. Once all historical costs have been recovered, the revenue split then changes and reverts to a more conventional PSC structure, but one which is still very competitive when compared to other licenses and other jurisdictions. As a result, a year-end valuation as determined by our independent reserves auditor signals exceptional value creation at ACATARA alongside CWLH and the rest of the portfolio within the group. Moving now to slide 12 and an update on Montara. where the significant efforts by the teams both onshore and offshore to restore high reliability and vessel integrity are really benefiting the business today. The tank repair program has reached a point where we now have line of sight to sufficient crude storage on the Montara Venture FPSO to be able to release the shuttle tanker earlier than planned, saving operating costs of around a million dollars per month. General tank condition is also better than expected, allowing restoration work to accelerate with further cost benefits. Reliability of the FPSO facilities has also improved during the period, and topside's uptime has been running at around 95% year-to-date, excluding weather, tank tops, and planned shutdowns. In addition, the Montara H6 well and Swift II subsea well have both been returned to service, which in combination sees production at Montara running at around 6,000 barrels a day, the upper end of our guidance range. Planning for the Skewer 11 redrill is advancing with a rig slot available next year, and this has the potential to further boost Montara production, adding incremental reserves by drilling a longer and structurally higher horizontal section through the reservoir. Slide 13 provides a snapshot of the recently awarded SFA cluster PSC announced in July, together with the earlier award of surrounding acreage and licensed PM 428. This opportunity includes several producing fields in which we previously held a non-operated working interest prior to the operator ceasing production by releasing the key FBSO infrastructure. This award, through an accelerated bid round, provides the benefit of giving us the operated interest under enhanced terms, which encourages investment and allows us time to prepare a redevelopment plan ahead of full commitment. This represents a real analogue opportunity to our existing interest in the area. Though with only 20% government take, and given prior knowledge, is seen as a low risk option to add significant growth and value to our Malaysia business. Turning now to slide 14, which provides a brief roundup on activity within the range of the portfolio. In February this year, we doubled our interest in the CWLH interest, acquiring Mimi's interests on broadly the same terms as previously agreed with BP. The asset has continued to outperform, and we would very much like to increase our stake further in order to help secure further investment in new wells for incremental reserves and value. At Peninsular Malaysia, following the very successful drilling program late last year, we're actively evaluating the timing and extent of further drilling activity on the PM323 asset. We expect to be able to add a material amount of new production and reserves, not least by drilling wells into the new structural feature that was identified in last year's campaign. Stag has challenged us this year, partly due to the impact of weather downtime earlier in 2024, but also due to an increase in the backlog of wells requiring workovers. This will be tackled in the coming weeks and months, increasing production into the year end. However, Stagg does continue to attract strong premiums to Brent, given continued demand for low sulfur heavy crudes, with the latest lifting in July achieving a premium to Brent of around $11 a barrel. Conversely, Symfohorm continues to outperform, with rising nominations to maximum contract quantity and beyond, and net daily production has increased from 1,500 BOEs a day to around 2,000 BOEs a day currently. Longer term deliverability from Sinful Home is supported by completion of the boost compression project in the first half following a drilling program last year. And finally, in Vietnam, we're continuing our negotiations to convert the heads of terms agreed earlier in the year into a binding gas sales agreement. We're encouraged by the renewed engagement of the regulator, and by the Vietnam government, and are finalizing a field development plan for submission to government soon, aiming to capitalize on the current momentum at a time of extreme energy shortage in the country. Slide 50 now reiterates guidance, though recognizes that there is some remaining uncertainty on production, as we finalise the ACOTARA project, taking it through to its performance test. The remainder of the portfolio is stable, demonstrating the value of the increasing diversity of the business with several producing streams. Costs to the business are holding, and especially capex, where the lump sum contract at ACOTARA, in principle, helps insulate us from cost creep. We recently benefited from a reduction in the final DCOM security payment at CWLH, where the operator provided lower than expected estimates for this work. And unit operating costs are falling as we add incremental barrels in the second half. And finally, moving to slide 16 to restate the investment case for Jadestone. We're uniquely positioned across Asia Pacific as one of the few upstream independents and the only one listed in London. This is a region hungry for energy, but also one where governments and regulators are promoting activity by improving terms and providing fiscal stability. We enjoy strong relationships with key stakeholders, and have built credibility through successful asset management and investment activity over the past few years. Our strategy is simple and repeatable, and we've turned a corner following the adverse impact of Montara's performance on the company in 2022. The portfolio has never been stronger. Average unit costs are falling as we add higher quality assets, and our 2P reserves sit at a record high. Now, just before we turn to questions, I'd like to turn to Bert Jaap. This will be his last results call before he leaves the company later this year. And on behalf of Jadestone, I'd like to thank him for his efforts over the past two years. And he leaves with our very best wishes as he heads home to the Netherlands. We're making good progress on the CFO search and hope to be in a position to announce a successor soon. And we're also making good progress on filling the COO position. This has taken longer than we expected, primarily due to the nature and location of the role. However, once again, we hope to share positive news soon. And with that update, please let's open for questions and answers. Thank you.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. That's star one to ask a question. Our first question comes from Werner Riding from Peel Hunt. Please go ahead.

Morning, guys. Paul, you mentioned a few times diversification, acquisitions, growth. So just in addition to your existing assets, I'm wondering how high up your priority list carrying out a significant M&A transaction is obviously, well, it seems like you got quite close some time ago now. And also, how would you assess the landscape of opportunities currently in Is this something that shareholders can look forward to if we look forward sort of six, 12 months? It's something to expect.

Oh, hi, Werner. Thanks. You know, the one thing that we have talked about a lot recently and are now starting to see the benefit of is this broadening of the portfolio. Clearly, some time ago, Montara held such an important part of the portfolio in 80% of the production, the business actually felt quite vulnerable. It was always the intention to work the business onto a much broader footprint. And you can only do that at the pace at which you find the right opportunities and the funding available to access them. And so, to some extent, we've worked hard over the last 12 to 18 months to put ourselves in a position today, not least through M&A, but also through the development of ACATARA with its significant capital to place the business in a strong position. And, you know, we need to continue to do that. We think there continues to be great opportunity for a company with our strategy in the region. And so, you know, at the heart of the story is the principle that we don't see a lot of competition. We do look at a lot of things. And from time to time, we see some great opportunities, which we look to improve. you know, we look to take on board. But it doesn't come with any predictability. When, you know, when inorganic growth is part of your business model, you really just, you know, you have to be patient and wait for the right things to come up. And so I can't give you a sense of, you know, at what point in time we'll see, you know, the next or new opportunities emerging into the business. Obviously, you refer to Project Gold in Australia, which we saw as a fantastic opportunity. The operator, the seller ultimately decided to withdraw the deal, unfortunately. But we remain opportunistic and we will continue to look for opportunities. you know, for things that add value, that fit our strategy with follow on reinvestment. And, you know, in due course, you know, hope to be able to announce some, you know, some of that to the market. But we can't predict the timing of it, Werner. I hope that answers your question.

Great. That's a good full answer. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from Ashley Kelty from Panama Librem. Please go ahead.

Morning, gents, and thanks for the presentation. Just a couple of questions. First one, are you able to give any colour on the timing of liftings in the coming months and whether you think you're going to be in an over or underlift position at year end? And second question was, now that's sort of ACATARA is up and running. What's the timing for further development work such as the infill drilling in Malaysia and how many wells do you think the campaign might be?

Hey Ashley, thanks. Thanks for the questions. Bert Yap in his discussion spoke a little bit to liftings. We were a bit light in the first half of the year with a significant build of inventory. And, you know, as you know, within our portfolio, you know, there are a couple of assets where, you know, liftings are quite sporadic and we can see quite significant swings in working capital as a result of that. So, you know, you just you just have to sort of, you know, think particularly with CWLH. And now to a lesser extent, Montara, you know, we as Bertiak reported, you know, we've just had one lifting from each recently. We can see, you know, we can see more towards the end of this year, CWLH, perhaps even early next year. Um, um, so to some extent, you know, we'll, we'll, um, you know, we'll try and report on that in, you know, in the next few months. Um, Montara, what I can say is, you know, our new operating model has us lifting slightly smaller volume volumes and historically, uh, you know, more in the range of, of 250 to 300,000 barrels. And so we will see, you know, more, you know, a smoother lifting schedule as a result of that. But of course, as capacity builds in the tanks, we may revert to larger volumes, lifting volumes in the future. Hard to predict, but we'll talk about that in the future. And STAG, we have two more uh, liftings to come this year. And, um, um, for the rest, um, Malaysia, uh, and of course, gas through both Akatar and Simphor Horm, uh, we see monthly, you know, monthly liftings and, and very regular payments. I hope that, um, you know, gets to the question on liftings. Um, you know, Akatara to, to, to your point, I think we, we have, Of course, invested significant capital there over the last couple of years, and particularly the last 12 months, as project activity has ramped up. With that behind us, we're starting to plan on capital investment next year. But it is too early to talk in great detail. Suffice to say, the success of the last drilling campaign in Malaysia does encourage us a lot for further drilling there. And of course, we have talked about it in this discussion, the redrill at Skuri 11, which will have a significant benefit at Montara. And we're pretty excited about the principle, that it isn't a redrill of an existing well. It does access incremental volumes that were originally in what we call the skewer 12 location, as well as further up dip, higher structural volumes from the existing well. So those are things that are definitely on the near-term horizon. And at some point, once we've finished our work, we'll also talk about the SFA cluster and what our plans might be there. So there's quite a bit of organic opportunity in the short to medium term. But I don't think we're ready to spell out the details yet.

OK, that's great. Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 4 by 1 on your telephone keypad now. The next question is from Harrison Locke from Stiefel. Please go ahead.

Morning all and congrats on another fantastic interim results here. I mean, I suppose everything in the portfolio looks like it's doing quite well now and Montara looks like it's performing fantastically. I just wanted if we can turn to the next phase at Montara and discuss the fewer 11 well that you're planning for next year. Could we get a bit more colour around what you're targeting here and what's the upside case of this well? My second one will be on Vietnam following the positive recent good news you've had there. And I think about the entire portfolio as a whole, how do we rank the opportunities that you've got going forward here organically and what do you see your priorities being? That'll be all from myself. Thanks.

Hi Harrison, thanks. Thanks for questions. So we'll try and. Pick those ones time. Suscuri 11 as I touched on in response to to Ashley's question. You know that this has been an opportunity to redesign. A well which can access upside that would otherwise be be far more expensive. with a new and individual well, for example, as we originally planned at Skewer 12. So by redesigning, using the same wellhead essentially, and sidetracking out from the existing well, we can turn the well and deviate it through a much longer horizontal section, which captures some incremental reserves in the old Skewer 12 location. And then we'll continue to drill horizontally higher in the structure than the current Scuri 11 well bore, again, capturing more reserves. So the horizontal section will be probably slightly more than twice the length of the current well, but still not an extreme well by any means. I think we're looking at something around 1,700. feet of a horizontal section um um and um and certainly you know nothing uh uh you know in comparison to to the much longer wells that we drill both at stag for example and we have drilled in in malaysia so it's seen as relatively straightforward access is more volumes and um you know as a result we'll expect it will come on when drilled at um at a very decent production rate. So as far as our timing for the well goes, we are waiting for a rig. The contract is agreed. It's a rig that's currently working for INPEX and will then drill one well with ENI before it comes to us. So timing is hard to predict. But definitely in next year's program. Vietnam. What can I say? It's hard work. You have to be very patient. We are seeing some momentum, some renewed momentum from both government, the buyer and the regulator, which is really encouraging. And we do know that there is a looming shortfall of gas, which we believe this project will fill. So we're encouraged and we're pushing as fast as we can. But in the end, predicting the timing and so on in Vietnam is actually quite difficult. But we are in parallel with the gas sales negotiations. We are finalizing our submission of a field development plan. And hope that you know these two streams together will add some, you know, momentum, additional momentum and impetus to get this thing going. And it would be really, really nice to be able to announce an FID at some point next year, but I'm not going to predict that at this point in time will keep you posted on and updated and see how it goes. Uhm, In terms of ranking of investment opportunities within the business today, we are going to be very careful in managing our capital. Post ACOTARA, I think the next largest single investment will be SCURE11. And the work for the planning and implementation of that well is really well advanced. And we are in the early stages of working on the drilling, the next drilling campaign in Malaysia. How many wells we drill, we haven't decided yet. We've certainly identified a large number of opportunities to drill there, particularly on East Belamut, where we had the successful campaign last year. And of course, the one thing I did touch on was the new Southwest feature on East Bellarmut, which contains probably up to 15 million barrels, and one which we're very excited in accessing. And it will take a number of wells to drain that structure. So we're not at a point yet of... being able to talk specifically the number of wells but that certainly will be part of our guidance discussion for 2025. fantastic um and that's everything for myself and it looks like there's lots to look forward to thank you thank you as a final reminder if you'd like to ask any further questions please press start all day one

on your telephone keypad now. It appears we have no further questions, so I'd like to hand back to the management team for any conclusions.

Thank you, Church. And thank you everyone for your time today and for your continued interest in the jade stone story. We're currently a participant in a sector, I have to say, which seems to be lacking any real market support. But notwithstanding, for me, the fundamentals clearly point to energy shortage, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. And I honestly believe that this will translate into positive momentum in due course. Within our own portfolio, once Acatara is at full production, we'll have achieved several key milestones this year. And as we start to restore balance sheet strength, we'll continue to build out the business, setting ourselves up. for the next steps in growth and value creation, both organic and inorganic. There's still significant additional value inherent in the portfolio too, and we're working to make progress on this in parallel, such as Vietnam, releasing further potential upside over time, certainly not yet recognized in the market today. And so with that final thought, I'd like to thank you once again. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or comments on the results. or in today's presentation. Thank you.