Tamboran Resources Corporation

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Tamboran Resources First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again press the star 1. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Joel Riddle, Managing Director and CEO. You may begin.

Thank you and welcome to Tamboran Resources First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Result Presentation. My name is Joel Riddle. I'm the Chief Executive Officer for Tamboran Resources, and I'm joined this morning by Eric Dyer, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get into the material, I'd like to refer everyone to the disclaimer statement associated with board-looking statements on slide 2. Starting with slide 3 and the summary of our activities over the last three months in the quarter, first, we completed the drilling of the Shenandoah South 2-H well, in which the company drilled the first ,000-foot horizontal section in the Beeloo Basin. Unfortunately, as we were coming out of a hole following the drilling of this horizontal section, we incurred a mechanical issue that required the well to be re-drilled via sidetrack. That sidetrack well is now being drilled in the horizontal section, and we are on target to TD that sidetrack well in the next few days ahead. Data from the SS2-H well and the SS2-H sidetrack well both demonstrate consistent geologic rock properties that we've seen in comparison to the SS1-H well. In addition, we observed no faulting through the full horizontal section, and we saw strong gas shows all the way through the entire interval. Drilling of the SS3-H well is expected to commence later this month from the same well pad, and again, the SS3 well will be designed very similar to the SS2-H well with a ,000-foot horizontal. Both the SS2-H sidetrack well and the SS3-H well are expected to both be drilled and cased by the end of this year. Liberty Energy also successfully mobilized new frac equipment from the U.S. into the Betelgeuse Basin ahead of stimulation of our two wells planned for early first quarter of 2025. And also, as I foreshadowed at our last call, the company remains focused on progressing the development of the first local sand mine in the Betelgeuse Basin, and we hope to have phase one of this local sand mine up and running and in place as part of our 2025 drilling campaign. We believe this local sand mine will be a key driver to reducing cost and improving efficiencies for our 2025 drilling program and beyond. The cash balance that we held following the end of this quarter was approximately $82 million. About $7.6 million of receivables were associated with the sale of a rig here in the U.S. that has more than offset the additional $5 million the company has incurred associated with the re-drilling of SS2-H. Most importantly, we remain fully funded and on track to deliver our IP30 flow rates for both wells by the end of first quarter of 2025. Moving to slide four as a summary, the results for the first two wells that have been drilled on the 2024 drilling program. You can see again the wells that we're drilling as the first two wells of a six-well campaign that are right in the middle of our million-acre development area on the west part of the Beelieu Basin. You can see by the picture on the right is the well pad in which we're drilling our first two wells. You can see the stimulation sand that has arrived on site and also the area on the northwest corner of the pad reserved for our compression facility that we plan to commission during the year of 2025. As I said up front, the SS2 well was sputted in late August and we drilled to a total measure depth of 20,670 feet in 35 days. Within this well, we also geosteered a ,000-foot horizontal section, which again is the longest horizontal section that has been drilled in the mid-Valcari B target in the Beelieu Basin to date. Prior to running our -half-inch casing, a downhole mechanical issue in the hole required the well to be re-drilled and sidetracked from approximately 1,840 feet. We've now incorporated key lessons from the SS2H well in the sidetracked well and we've now successfully drilled approximately 16,200 feet with material increase in drilling efficiencies from SS2H to the sidetracked well. Following the drilling of the SS2H sidetracked well and casing this well, we will move immediately to the SS3H well in which we plan to commence drilling later this month from the same well pad. As I mentioned, the IP30 flow rates for both wells remain on track for release in first quarter 2025, subject to weather conditions. Moving to slide five, you can see the depth days versus depth curve for each of the three wells that the company has drilled in the last six months, the SS1H well, the SS2H well, and the SS2H sidetracked well in red. One of the biggest opportunities for the company that we've been able to execute over the last two wells is to incorporate learnings from the SS1H well associated with improved drilling rates. We've seen a 60% increase in the average spud to TD drilling rate from SS1H to SS2H where we exceeded 580 feet per day as compared to approximately 370 feet a day in SS1H. Broadly, as we compare this drilling performance across other wells drilled in the basin, particularly in the deepest sections on the east part of the basin, you can see the 35 days that we were able to achieve to reach TD and SS2H compares quite favorably to the two wells drilled by our partner, Santos, that were approximately 80 days. In addition, we've seen improved efficiencies from SS2H to SS2H sidetracked well, and we remain on track to drill that sidetracked well in less than 30 days. If we move to slide six, again, a comparison of the three wells that we've drilled over the last six months, and I want to highlight the key successes and lessons learned from each of these wells, particularly focusing on SS2H. First is we were able to land a lateral section without any pilot hole. Not only did that confirm our geologic thesis around the location of SS2H, which is approximately three miles north of SS1H, but it also saved six days on drill time. Second, we were able to geosteer through a 70-foot section, and we incurred no faults through the full ,000-foot section. On the learning side, there's been quite a bit of focus on reducing nonproductive time. We were able to improve our performance in the sidetracked well by using a KCL mud versus the calcium-chloride mud that we used for both SS1H and the SS2H well. So that improved mud system allowed us to shave quite a few days off the sidetracked well performance. In addition, we've been working with our partner, Baker Hughes, on improving the number of tool failures that we've had, particularly the RSS tool failure that we've had a number of issues with in the SS2H well. That combined with an improved mud system, we've been able to drill the horizontal section as articulated on the well schematic on the left from 17 days in the SS2H well to a projected 10 days in the sidetracked well. Moving to slide seven, one of the most encouraging things we've seen in the drilling of the SS2H well and the SS2H sidetracked well is the consistency in the geology as compared to what we saw at SS1H well. Again, the SS2H location is about three miles away from the SS1H location, and you can see by the log section of the ,000-foot horizontal that we drilled in SS2H looks very consistent in rock properties that we saw at SS1H. In addition, we saw no faulting across this full horizontal section and strong gas shows across the whole horizontal section. These gas shows look very similar to what we saw at SS1H. So overall, this is very encouraging in our ability to demonstrate a consistency around productivity across this ,000-foot horizontal as compared to the SS1H well. Moving to slide eight, as I mentioned, we now have the full Liberty FracSpread on location that's been imported from the US. This will be the largest FracSpread in all of Australia, 80,000 horsepower, 32 pumps, 240 sandboxes. And I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to see optimized stimulation across the 120 stages that we'll be pumping across two wells and also the potential for material cost reductions, not just for the two wells that we're drilling and completing this year, but also for the four follow-up wells that we have next year. Our target is to be pumping five to seven stages a day with this new equipment, and that compares very favorably to the one stage a day that we were pumping with the previous equipment that we used for SS1H. Moving to slide nine, again, we are progressing the development of the first local sand mine in the Betelgeuse Basin. You can see on the map in the upper left-hand corner of the slide the 11 sand mining leases that the company has been granted by the NT government. Three of those locations we've identified a sand resource that could generate an equivalent 100-mesh sand that we need for our completions. And the quantum of sand that we've identified is enough to support the completion of 500 development wells. One of the things I'm most excited about is as we move down this cost curve on sourcing sand locally in the Betelgeuse Basin, we have the opportunity to reduce our current sand cost in our wells of around $4.5 million to approximately half a million dollars per well. So in other words, we have an opportunity to reduce the overall well cost for our 2025 program and beyond at approximately $4 million for each well. Moving to slide 10, our current cash position as of the September 30th of this year is approximately $82 million. You can see we started the quarter with a cash balance of $75 million, an additional $7.4 million, incorporating the Green Shoe post our IPO in late June. We've had approximately $19 million in cash that's gone into the ground for the drilling of our two wells. In addition, we had net proceeds of $7.6 million from the sale of a US rig that we've been marketing for the last few months. And that $7.6 million in net proceeds, again, more than all sets, the $5 million of budget impact we've had associated with the redrilling of our SS2H sidetrack well. Importantly, the company remains fully funded to deliver our IP30 flow rates from our two wells that we anticipate announcing to market in late first quarter of 2025. And finally on slide 11 is the upcoming catalyst. Again, we look to finalize the drilling and casing of SS2H sidetrack and the SS3H well. We will initiate stimulation activities and flow testing of these two wells in first quarter and currently on track to announce our IP30 flow rate results from these two wells in later part of first quarter of 2025. In parallel with all this, we're finalizing the stakeholder and regulatory approvals associated with our pilot project. And also that will lead us to commencing construction of the facility and pipeline infrastructure to support our pilot project, first gas that again we're anticipating in first half of 2026. Thank you very much and I'll turn it back over to the operator for a Q&A session from here. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 in your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Your first question today comes from the line of Charles Mead from Johnson Rice. Your line is open.

Yes, good evening Joel and Eric. Thank you for staying up late to do this all your time. Joel, I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about where in the hole you had that mechanical problem. And it sounds like this is kind of a known problem with a known solution given your success in redrilling this. But I want you to tell a little bit more about it and what you guys have done differently on the sidetrack.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for your question, Charles. You know, as I mentioned in my open remarks, we finished the drilling of the horizontal section for SS2H and as we were tripping out of the hole with the drilling assembly, we had a tight spot at approximately 4,000 feet. That tight spot resulted in us increasing the amount of torque that we saw on the drill string. And we ended up parting that drill string again around 4,000 feet and that drill string in total was around 800 feet. So there was 800 feet of drill string that we left in the hole. You know, after consulting our JV partners, we went in to try to fish the drill string that we left in the hole. A couple of days that we spent trying to fish and we made the decision as a JV to pump, submit and sidetrack. As far as the learnings are concerned, you know, as I mentioned, we felt like mud integrity contributed to the sticky spot that we saw as we were coming out of the hole. And so again, after consulting our JV partners, we shifted from a calcium chloride mud to a KCL mud. We've already seen some better performance as we were drilling the SS2H sidetrack well. And that greater mud integrity, I think, is already showing some benefit. So, you know, big picture, you know, as you look at a lot of the shell basins that have been developed in the early stages here in the US, you know, there's in any of these early drilling situations that we currently are in, in the Betelue, there's optimizations that you're constantly working through, everything from well design to mud systems. And, you know, the good news is I think we're able to leverage a lot of our team's experience from a lot of the basins that we drilled in here in the US, obviously leveraging our JV partner and Brian Sheffield's team to really, you know, make some adjustments going from SS2H to the sidetrack well. And just to give you a kind of a sense, you know, we were averaging around 530 feet per day in the SS2H well. In the SS2H sidetrack well, we were, you know, we're averaging about double that kind of penetration rate per day. So we feel pretty good about the upgraded mud system. That doesn't mean we're not going to continue to evaluate. We're already looking at ways to further optimize the mud system from the results that we're seeing in the sidetrack. So I'll stop there. If there's any further questions on this, I'm happy to take any follow

-up. Yeah, that's great detail, Joel. Thank you for that. And then in your prepared comments, you mentioned the completion time, you mean weather permitting. I'm guessing that's seasonal rain, but maybe you could just tell us what the variables are there.

Yeah, so in the Northern Territory, you do have a rainy season that is generally from late November to sort of the end of March is the window. You know, I guess the thing that we have as a company been able to, I would say, build as a core competency has been able to complete wells, perform operations out there all the way through the rainy season. I think you'll remember the SS1H well, we pumped the completion for SS1H right through the rainy season. So, you know, our guys out there in the field are well equipped to accommodate sort of the operational requirements around completion. It's not ideal. We much prefer to be pumping our completion during the dry season. But where we are today, you know, we're making necessary adjustments, things like making sure the sand stays dry. You know, that's the main thing, not having to deal with the wet sand. You know, we're also, again, working very closely with Liberty. You know, I think having the increased, you know, their equipment out there in the field, I think it's going to always help our ability to have efficiencies across pumping these two, you know, pumping the completion for these two wells. That's

great detail. Thank you,

Joel. Your next question comes from a line of Kaylee Ekamine from Bank of America. Your line is open.

Hey, Joel. Good morning. Obviously, a sidetrack here is an ideal, but it sounds like you're really making good progress on your project so far. Maybe from a cost standpoint, can you talk a little bit about the difference in cost between the two mud systems and whether what you're seeing so far puts downward pressure on your ultimate well cost?

Yeah, it's a great question, Kaylee. Look, as I mentioned, we're able, in the sidetrack well, to have an increased efficiency. You know, we're seeing kind of above 1,000 feet per day compared to, you know, 530 feet a day that we saw in the SS2H well. So the sidetrack, we're doing a lot better, you know, with the new mud system. The change of the mud system is, or the cost of that new mud system is very negligible related to our overall well cost. It's just we're able to see ROPs that are a lot better. So you're right. I mean, drilling the sidetrack is not ideal, but it gave us another opportunity to get down the efficiency curve as it relates to improving drill times. And, you know, I hope that that will continue the more wells we drill. So that's what, you know, other operators in the US have seen. The more wells you drill, the more efficient you are. And I think that same thing is going to occur here in the beetle lid as we drill

more and more wells. For sure. You guys will definitely get better with more reps. Maybe you can talk a little bit about the cash forage over the next 18-month period. Just remind me, there's a gas processing plant that's saying construction that can be monetized. What's the latest on that front? Yes, we've

completed feed work on the compressor facility. That is, you know, we've already put down some long-lead capital to preserve the timing to have that facility delivered to site and commissioned in the second half of next year. You know, so that is currently in process. We're right on track to deliver that. You know, one of the opportunities we're working on today is sourcing necessary midstream capital to, as we get into the chunkier capital requirements coming into next year. So those are things we're working on. We'll have some further announcements on that in future earnings calls. But everything's going as planned as we speak.

Thanks for that, Joel. I'll see you later today. Okay, sounds good.

Again, if you'd like to ask a question, press star 1 in your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Ansh Kittaria from Hannon. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. I had a couple of questions, please. I was wondering, first of all, if you could give a bit of an update in terms of the NT government's plans for the middle arm and how that's progressing. And I suppose related to that, the NT LNG, any kind of progress or updates you have any over there? And then secondly, I was just wondering if there's also any updates in terms of the check boarding of acreage when you're expecting to finalize that and the potential impacts over there. Thank you.

Yeah, sure. On your first question, the government remains very focused on progressing an environmental assessment over middle arm. That process kicked off middle of last year. You know, that is continuing. They expect to reach a final environmental assessment being completed by the end of 2025 is their target. From where I can, you know, kind of from my perspective, they are on track to deliver on that timeline. And we've had a new government come into power in the Northern Territory. It's a country liberal party for everyone not familiar with the terms in Australia. Liberal Party means right of center, and they've been very positive around both the Beataloo and middle arm since they've come into power a few months ago. They had a really nice announcement over overnight related to their support of the Beataloo and therefore middle arm. So we, you know, I think we have very strong support at the local Northern Territory level. You also remember that the federal government has committed one and a half billion Australian or about a million a billion dollars US for the middle arm project. That will go toward common user infrastructure. So, you know, we, we, we enjoy both, you know, federal government support and local government support on on middle arm. As far as what the company is doing on our NT LNG project, we remain on track with working with our our new partner Bechtel. Bechtel kicked off pre feed studies over the last quarter, and we hope to finish those pre feed studies by second quarter of next year and be in position to move to feed for NT LNG. And so we'll be working on feed in second half of next year through middle of twenty twenty six. And there's where we would line up, you know, the environmental approval hopefully will be in place for middle arm. We'll have our feed study completed. We'll have the drilling of our six pilot wells with long term flow tests with some cash flow to get us comfortable around reserves. And that points us to a sanction decision as early as the end of twenty twenty six. You know, as far as the checkerboard is concerned, we are in commercial discussions with our partner, Daily Waters Energy. That's the company led by Brian Sheffield. So those commercial discussions are ongoing. As far as the details around those discussions, I think it's a little early to discuss at this point, but we'll likely update the market further on the market. On the conclusion of the checkerboard discussion in first half of next year. Great.

Thanks, Joe.

And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to management for final closing remarks.

Well, thanks very much for everyone joining this morning. And we look forward to updating the market further in the next three months ahead. If there's any questions that anyone has as follow up, please reach out to the company and we'll reach right back out to you. So thanks very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.