VAALCO Energy, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to Valco Energy's first quarter of 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode for the duration of a call. And should you need any assistance today, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. And to withdraw a question, please press star, then two. Also, please be aware that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Investor Relations Coordinator, Chris DeLange. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to Valco Energy's first quarter 2026 conference call. After I cover the forward-looking statements, George Maxwell, our CEO, will review key highlights of the first quarter. Ron Bain, our CFO, will then provide a more in-depth financial review. George will then return for some closing comments before we take your questions. During our question and answer session, we ask you to limit your questions to one and a follow-up. You can always reenter the queue with additional questions. I would like to point out that we posted a supplemental investor deck on our website that has additional financial analysis, comparisons, and guidance that should be helpful. With that, let me proceed with our forward-looking statement comments. During the course of this conference call, the company will be making forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and those actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Valco disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These and other risks are described in our earnings release, the presentation posted on our website, and in the reports we file with the SEC, including our Form 10-K. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. Let me turn the call over to George.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Over the past two years, we have streamlined and expanded our portfolio while delivering consistently solid operational results. In February 2026, we divested all of our Canadian assets and simultaneously added to our Cote d'Ivoire position by being named operator with a 60% working interest in the Kisapo field on CI40 block. We are actively evaluating and processing seismic with our partners in Niossi Marine and Gaduma Marine Blocks offshore Gabon and on our exploration block CI705 in Côte d'Ivoire. At Itami we have had several successful wells drilled and the rig has now moved to Ibori to drill the next well in our drilling campaign. The Baobab FPSO has successfully completed its refurbishment and is now moored back into position with wells being reconnected and production expected to resume in early June. As we discussed our operational and financial results today, it is important to remember that 2025 was a transitional year for Valco as production came offline in Q1 at Côte d'Ivoire due to the FPSO project and we did not start the drilling campaign in Gabon until late Q4. First quarter 2026 was a pivotal quarter operationally and we are beginning to see the significant production uplift We are projecting from these major projects in Q2 2026 and expect it to continue into 2027. We are confident in our ability to execute and have increased our full year 2026 production, sales guidance and added to our work programme without increasing our capital expenditure guidance. I would now like to go through and provide a quick update on our diverse portfolio of high quality assets beginning with Côte d'Ivoire. I would like to remind you that we had no assets in Cote d'Ivoire prior to April 2024. Since that time, we have developed a significant production and prospective portfolio. In line with the project timeline, the FPSO at Baobab ceased hydrocarbon operations in January 2025. Following a year of refurbishment in Dubai, the FPSO returned to Côte d'Ivoire in April and is now moored into position and we have four out of the seven risers and umbilicals connected. We expect the field to restart production in June, with sales commencing from the FPSO in Q3. We are very pleased how well the FPSO refurbishment went and that it was completed within the initial timeline expected. The refurbishment was undertaken to extend the life of the vessel and to increase its capacity as we begin a significant development program at Baobab later this year. The program includes four producers, two or three water injectors, and two workovers, providing potential meaningful additions to production from the main Baobab field, where we have a 10-year extension of the license to 2038. The current drilling plan on Baobab is to begin drilling on a batch basis the top hole sections of all wells. These completions will then be commenced and we expect at least one well to be on full production by year-end. In February 2026, in accordance with the CI40PSC, Valco and Petrosy elected to participate in the development of the Kisapo field. Valco was confirmed as operator with a 60% working interest in the Kisapo field on the CI40 block just 8km from the Baobab field. We are now working on a field development plan using new ocean bottom node seismic data that is expected to help de-risk and enhance our evaluation and development plan. The Kisapo field was discovered in 2002 with the Kisapo 1X well and later appraised in 2019 with the Kisapo 2A well which tested at over 7,000 barrels of oil per day. Our current assessment has the field with an estimated gross 2C resources of approximately 102 million barrels of oil equivalent and 293 million barrels of oil equivalent in place. Also in Côte d'Ivoire, we continue to evaluate the subsurface potential of our new exploration block, CI705, which we operate with a 70% working interest. We continue to see encouraging prospectivity on the block in proven play types through the Ivorian Basin, including both structural and stratigraphic traps in the Upper Cretaceous and Albion sections. We have met all current work commitments on the block and have been granted a six-month extension to the first exploration phase, which now extends this phase into Q4 2026. Our subsurface work will continue to mature the encouraging prospectivity we see on the block in preparation for a decision later this year to proceed to the second exploration phase, which carries a well commitment. So in less than two years, we have established a sizable position in Côte d'Ivoire with considerable upside potential. We're generally excited about the prospectivity in Côte d'Ivoire and their ability to help us achieve our production growth targets. Moving to Gabon. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we began our phase three drilling program with the drilling of two pilot wells in the Itami field. Based on the pilot well results, we proceeded with the drilling of Itami 15-8 development well on the 1V block of Itami in December 2025. This well came online in late February at about 2,000 gross barrels of oil per day, so our Q1 production results only had one month of production from this well. The rig remained on the Itami platform to drill an exploration prospect in West Itami. While this well encountered 10 metres of high-quality gamba sands, the target zone was water-bearing and not commercial. The lower portion of the well was plugged and abandoned, but the well bore was utilised and sidetracked in the upper portion of the well to drill the Itami 14H development well in the main fault block of Itami that was de-risked from the results of the earlier pilot wells. In late April, the Itami 40 nets was brought online with an impressive initial rate of around 4,850 gross bars of oil per day. This well encountered 325 metres of lateral net pay in high-quality gamba sands in an attic position within the main fault block at Itami. Our second quarter production at Gabon should be enhanced by two months of production from this very successful well. After completing our programme at the Itami platform, we move the rig to the Iburi platform where we are drilling a development well and a work over well to enhance production, lower costs and potentially add reserves. We also plan another two wells at Scent platform following the completion of the programme at Iburi. We expect that development well at Iburi to be completed later this quarter and we plan to announce the results to the market when that happens. Regarding our exploration blocks in Gabon, the Niossi Marine and Gaduma Marine, we are working with our partners on plans for the two blocks moving forward. We commenced a seismic survey in November of 2025 which was completed in the first quarter of 2026. This survey completed part of the Exploration Work Programme commitment for these blocks. Processing of the seismic data has begun with early products expected to begin arriving later this year. Given the proximity of these blocks to the prolific producing fields of Itami and Disafu, we are excited about the future possibilities for these blocks. Turning to Egypt, for the past year we had contracted a rig and drilled about 20 wells across a drilling campaign that helped to increase production year over year in 2025. We are very pleased with the operational performance and efficiency of the drilling programme which contributes to minimising costs. In conjunction with our drilling programme, we also continue to perform production optimisations, workovers and re-completions that have significantly improved our production performance. While we wrapped up the drilling programme in the fourth quarter of 2025, given the strong results, we have added a six-well drilling programme into Egypt that is commencing in Q2 and which should help increase production in Q3. We have not increased our capex guidance for 2026 for the cost of these wells as the range we provided in March can comfortably include these new wells. We also plan to optimizations, workovers and re-completions in 2026 that are focused on production enhancement. Egypt production remains strong and we continue to invest to drill development wells and continue to delineate opportunities in Gazalat that could open additional prospects in the future. Turning to Equatorial Guinea. In March 2024, we announced the finalisation of documents in Equatorial Guinea related to the Venus Block P plan of development. Last summer, we began our front-end engineering design or FEED study. The FEED is complete and confirms the technical viability of our plan of development, but also highlights some of the risks and challenges from the shelf location. We have expanded this review to explore more efficient development opportunities through a subsea development versus the original shelf development which would also significantly simplify the drilling operations and well design and this evaluation is currently underway. We are expecting to proceed with our plans to develop, operate and begin producing from the Discovery and Block P offshore. We are targeting Venus FID in 2026. In closing, we have an outstanding diversified portfolio of assets that we believe have significant upside opportunities. We remain focused on growing production, reserves, and value for our shareholders. I'd like to thank our hardworking team who continue to operate and execute our plans. Over the past several years, we have significantly diversified our portfolio, enhanced our capacity to generate operational cash flow while returning capital to shareholders, and increasing our credit facility capacity. We are well positioned to execute the projects in our enhanced portfolio, and our proven track record of success these past few years should instil confidence for our future. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Ron to share our financial results.